Bruce Sutherland was pre-eminent among Scottish self defence experts. His moustache alone struck terror into miscreants, and for the purposes of training films and manuals, he is always the one in snappy shorts. But mostly the Manual (c1915) features two sturdy policemen with helmets and jackets welded onto their steely frames, who paste the living daylights out of two noticeably foreign models, one a black, tough cove and the other a Chinese willowy youth of immense inscrutability. No stop and search here but grab and incapacitate.

Later in the book, a scallywag has made the great error of picking on someone who looks like Margaret Rutherford, and who seems to immediately engage him in an erotic dance. How Francis Bacon would have been aroused by the close contact clinches in this book. He always had a soft spot for a chap in uniform.

I do not wish to undermine its relevance today when dealing with Drunks, Pirates and Academic Ne-er-do-wells. Buy yourself a giant moustache and close hugging shorts and you too can clear the streets of Portsmouth, sinister yet cheery, Love on one hand, but Hate on the other.

The VTS management would like to thank David Monkton for access to this remarkable publication.