Men's home help cleans up for Quarto

HOUSEHOLD Management for Men, an illustrated guide to help keep bachelor pads spick and span, is the latest big seller for London-based publisher Quarto.

More than 50,000 copies were sold in Britain last year and the Germans are the latest to fall for what chairman and chief executive Laurence Orbach calls his 'edgy' titles.

He said: 'Girls give it to their boyfriends as they often do not want to stay over at their messy bachelor pads. Our German publishers have packaged it cutely with a little mesh zipper bag device for keeping socks together in the wash and making sure one sock does not get lost to sock heaven.'

Quarto, the company behind other self-help guides such as the Bedside Kama Sutra, produced a 23.4% leap in half year pre-tax profits to £1.7m and the interim dividend is raised 10% to 2.75p.

Orbach said Quarto was well positioned for 'overall progress'.