After giving a talk to the Pub History Society, a man approaches Jack Adams with an old scrapbook which is falling apart. He says, "I think you are the right person to give this to.", hands it over and then wanders off. The book is just about holding its pages, the covers are gone, pages are missing but what is left of the content is spellbinding. This resource is like a game of chess, a Times cryptic crossword and a Sodoku puzzle all bundled together and then presented without any rules on how to play the game. A treasure trove to delight anyone interested in history, culture and British pubs.

Nobody needs to tell a man today that our role in our cultures and societies is changing. The traditional sense of what it is to be a man is under pressure from many different quarters and the word ‘toxic’ has even been associated with the male identity. The Rules is a book which creates a point of reference for most of the situations men will and do face in their lives in the here and now. For many of us there is a feeling of being under siege by life itself. That is not just unhealthy but in the majority of cases simply unjust.

The Grail Quest is the second volume in The MANual series by Jack Adams. In this volume, the subject is an interpretation of the Arthurian Grail Quest as a metaphorical map for life. The work takes the six stages of The Grail Quest, as proposed by Joseph Campbell, and develops each into understandings of the different life challenges we all meet. In this way, it is possible to comprehend any situation a man finds himself in using one of these six stages. This provides a solid viewpoint of current challenges but also the knowledge of what is needed to be done to move forward.