My grateful thanks to Jakob de Villiers III for sending me a copy of The Stuff Nobody Tells You. It’s my pleasure to share my review today.

The Stuff Nobody Tells You is available for purchase here. 

The Stuff Nobody Tells You

Nobody sat you down and explained which drawer the washing powder goes in, what the tax code on your payslip means, or whether the black mould is yours to clean or your landlord’s to fix.

They just assumed you knew. So you nodded along, looked it up later, and hoped nobody noticed.

The Stuff Nobody Tells You is the no-judgement answer book for all of it. 75 short, dry, genuinely useful entries on everyday adult life in the UK. Open it anywhere. Each one takes about a minute.

What’s inside

• The machines that beep at you: the washing machine drawer, what the label symbols mean, the right fridge temperature
• Not poisoning anyone: use by vs best before, reheated rice, defrosting a chicken safely
• The great bin mystery: what actually goes in the recycling, and that greasy pizza box
• Your home: finding the stopcock, bleeding a radiator, resetting a tripped switch, tenancy deposits, black mould
• The car: the 20p tyre test, and which dashboard lights mean stop now
• Money and work: tax codes, gross vs net, notice periods, holiday pay, Direct Debit refunds, sick notes
• Your body: fevers, burns, nosebleeds, paracetamol or ibuprofen, what to do if someone has passed out
• Tech and the outside world: scam texts, passwords and 2FA, tipping, passports, your rights when something breaks

Written for Britain and checked against gov.uk, the NHS, HMRC, the Food Standards Agency and your council’s own guidance. Dry enough to enjoy, correct enough to trust, small enough to keep by the kettle.

Buying it for someone? It makes a good present for anyone leaving home, starting university, moving into a first flat, or quietly bluffing their way through being a grown-up. A school leaver gift, housewarming present, Secret Santa or stocking filler.

You’re not stupid. You were just never told.

My Review of The Stuff Nobody Tells You

A handy book of the basics in life.

It’s actually quite hard to review The Stuff Nobody Tells You without merely repeating the blurb as this is a book that truly does what it says on the tin. It is designed for the UK. 

It is packed with information that each and every one of us will need at some point. Jakob de Villiers III covers everything from storing food in the fridge through tax codes to things lost in the post. 

I loved the way the content is presented. There are 10 well defined chapters, but what works particularly well is that the tone is helpful and witty without being condescending or patronising, and the information is presented with plenty of white space and some supporting illustrations so that what we’re being told never feels overwhelming.

I thought The Stuff Nobody Tells You was a cracking little book. It’s a great stocking filler or Secret Santa gift. The contents have been checked against UK law and Government sources. Of course the author has the caveat that different authorities may alter rules (particularly when recycling for example) and things might change over time, but this does not detract from a really useful volume. I also loved the request to readers to ask any question that might not have been covered so that future books will be even better!

My advice; get a copy of The Stuff Nobody Tells You for any young adult starting out in life, whether that’s in their first home or their first year at college or university. And get a copy for your own home. Put The Stuff Nobody Tells You in that drawer in the kitchen for stuff nobody knows where to put. Next time you have an emergency or want to know something practical, you’ll know exactly where the answer is. 

About Jakob de Villiers III

Jakob de Villiers III is the third generation of a family that has never quite known how to do anything practical. His grandfather could not change a fuse. His father could not change his grandfather’s mind about this. Jakob, breaking with tradition, learned how to do roughly forty household things, then characteristically wrote them all down rather than help anyone in person.

He writes useful but funny reference books, the kind people keep by the kettle and quote at dinner parties without crediting him. He believes most of adult life is just a list of things everyone else seems to have been told in a room he wasn’t invited to. The Stuff Nobody Tells You is his attempt to forward you the memo. 

For further information, visit Jakob’s website or find him on Instagram.