I quite like this book. It's written in a friendly style and contains basic information about lots of sewing techniques. However, the information is very basic, and I've often found a bit of imagination necessary to work out how to actually do something. Even the (very lovely) photographs don't always quite make things clear, and I've frequently found myself on google or youtube for more information. Having said that, for someone new to sewing it is quite a useful handbook and a very good starting point for working out how to do what you want to do. There may be better books out there but I haven't come across one. Oh, just so you know what to expect, this book doesn't contain any patterns or projects - it's a collection of instructions for particular techniques. A useful reference but not a 'teach-yourself-to-sew' kind of guide.