Handbooks from hell

Aargh - handbooks. They're everywhere! Handbooks for tutors, for exams, for students, for quality, for training, for new staff, old staff, no staff.

Who invented them? Where did they come from? And why "handbooks"? Most are too big for the hand, they don't read like books and you can't hand them on.

Scarcely a day goes by without someone sending you another. Where are you supposed to keep them?

Does anyone know what's in them? Is there a handbook of handbooks somewhere?

Martin Coyle
Cardiff University