“Being stylish takes time, patience, but above all practice. Gore Vidal said, ‘Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.’”

When a book opens with my favorite quote about style, how can I not fall in love with it?

I first mentioned Camilla Morton’s book, How to Walk in High Heels: The Girl’s Guide to Everything, in my Fashionable Reading post in late June. Since then, I have been reading a few chapters of the book each night. You could read it all at once if you wanted to, it’s under 450 pages and an easy read. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

You may recognize Camilla Morton’s name from her pieces for The Times, Harpers Bazaar and Vogue among many publications. The forward to her book is written by none other than John Galliano, with whom she worked with at Christian Dior.

How to Walk in High Heels: The Girl’s Guide to Everything offers snippets of advice for women everywhere.

The book offers five main themes:

1. Greeting Your Public
2. Being Socially Adept
3. Tackling your Technophobia
4. Homes and Gardens
5. Joining the Jet Set

Each theme contains its own set of chapters offering advice, tips and quotes. You will recognize a lot of names and may be familiar with many of the quotes. The reading is light and amusing, and I was amazed at the diversity of the advice tips offered. There are detailed examples of how to perform a tango and I laughed at the list of which songs should and shouldn’t be picked for karaoke.

Covering topics such as, “How to Change a Fuse“, “How to Observe Royal Protocol and Do a Royal Wave“, “How to Survive a Crash“and “How to Put up a Tent“, this book really does provide a guide for everything!

Some of my favorite headings include:

• How to get ready in 5 minutes - really
• How to make stylish excuses
• How to fit everything into your handbag
• How to cope in a real emergency: when a heel breaks
• How to survive an occasion: weddings, funerals and birthdays
• How to catch a mouse, rather than gain a pet

Those topics were great and I recommended many to some of my friends who enjoyed them as well. The book managed to find something for everyone I knew. I think I must have shared it with all my friends!

There are also quite a number of chapters written by celebrities. You may be interested in the following:

• How to pick a shoe by Manolo Blahnik
• How to talk to your tailor by Stella McCartney
• How to look good in a photo by Gisele
• How to pack by Anya Hindmarsh

How to Walk in High Heels: The Girl’s Guide to Everything is a fabulous book and I am sure that you will laugh out loud several times during your reading! I absolutely loved it and learned a lot from the advice tips. I think it’s the perfect gift to give your friend because they’re bound to find something useful in it and have a fun time reading it too!