in the series were published in 1938 priced at two shillings and sixpence. The first five books to be published were adaptations from earlier works, but subsequently all were newly commissioned. The original numbering scheme reached to over 700. Notable early titles included: Teach Yourself About the Greeks by J. C. Stobart, was abridged from his full length work The Glory that was Greece (1911). Teach Yourself Amateur Acting by John Bourne, said to have been read by Michael Caine at the start of his career. Teach Yourself Arabic, first published in 1943, was written by Arthur Stanley Tritton. Tritton wrote a number of books on Islam and its history, and from 1938 to 1946 was Professor of Arabic at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Teach Yourself Astronomy was written by the noted British astronomer David Stanley Evans in 1957. At the time he was Chief Assistant at the Royal Observatory Cape of Good Hope. Teach Yourself Biology was written in 1940 by the pioneering woman physician Mary Elizabeth Phillips (with Lucy Ellen Cox). Teach Yourself Colloquial Arabic, first published in 1962, was written by Terence Frederick Mitchell, a British linguist at the University of Leeds. Teach Yourself Embroidery, one of the earliest titles in 1938, was written by Mary Thomas (1889-1948), who was editor of The Needlewoman in the 1920s and 1930s. Teach Yourself Irish, first published in 1961, was written by the Celtic scholars Myles Dillon and Donncha Ó Cróinín. Teach Yourself to Think, published in 1938, was written by R. W. Jepson, headmaster of the Mercers' School. Teach Yourself Turkish, first published in 1953, was written by Geoffrey Lewis, the first professor of the Turkish language at the University of Oxford. Subjects covered in the series ranged from the vocational (Teach Yourself Banking by John Burgess Parker) to practical home help (Teach Yourself Bringing up Children, Teach Yourself Dressmaking, Teach Yourself Gas in the House, The Teach Yourself Letter Writer), to hobbyist (Teach Yourself Bee-Keeping, Teach Yourself Etching), and language learning (with Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek and Hindustani among the earliest titles). The books even stretched to highly technical subjects (Teach Yourself Chemistry, Teach Yourself Atomic Physics) and to the arts (Teach Yourself to Compose Music). One of the most extreme was Teach Yourself Jet Engines and Rocket Propulsion by Patrick Joseph McMahon, published in 1964. A Concise Guide to Teach Yourself was published