Republished in 1999, the book has continued to gift time-honoured advice that has not lost its touch. Chapters focus on food, cocktails, merrymaking and entertaining, including all manner of courses from canapes and picnic suppers to midnight snacks and a prize brunch for stragglers the next day. There are after-dinner activities like continental card games, etiquette refreshers and tests for rating how attractive you are to women. Chuckle-worthy no-nos of interacting with the opposite sex include the likes of “don’t show your real fondness for a girl by highlighting her bad points and advising her how to improve them” and “don’t boast about your conquests with other women in an attempt to arose a lady’s interest” (hint: it won’t work).

On the matter of how to dress for the cocktail party or supperclub you’re set to host, Esquire’s Handbook For Hosts advises that lightweight midnight-blue trousers, a pleated chest dress shirt and velvet jacket are appropriate attire , provided that “you are a bachelor and not a hermit, that you are going to entertain pretty regularly in the apartment and not spend all of your time prowling a pair of nylon legs”. Commenting on hats, pushing in chairs and shaving a minimum of once a day are actions that rate highly on the scale of attractiveness.

Packed with recipes from obscure Peanut Butter Soup to simple Welsh Rarebit and Rum Ice-cream for dessert, this guide delivers a good dose of advice for the modern male host.