Book: How to Be Inimitable

Overview
George Mikes' How to Be Inimitable continues the playful, sharply observant voice readers know from How to Be an Alien. The book is a series of short, witty essays and aphorisms that treat the art of being oneself as both a practical project and a comic performance. Mikes approaches individuality not as a lofty ideal but as a set of everyday choices about manners, conversation, clothing and habits that make a person unmistakably themselves.
Rather than offering a systematic self-help program, the book strings together set pieces, anecdotes, hypothetical scenes and pithy rules, so that the cumulative effect is a portrait of eccentricity practiced with charm. The humour is affectionate: it pokes fun at conformity and the social pressures that smooth people into predictable shapes, while celebrating the little rebellions that mark someone as inimitable.

Tone and Style
Mikes writes in a light, conversational tone, deploying dry understatement and surprising turns of phrase. The prose relies on paradox and anti-advice, often recommending the wrong action as the surest route to standing out. Sentences are economical and often end on a laugh that feels inevitable once it is read.
The book's structure is deliberately fragmentary, which suits both the comedic aim and the subject matter. Each short piece can be dipped into and enjoyed on its own, but together they build a coherent attitude: individuality is a cultivated habit more than a sudden revelation. The voice is urbane, slightly mischievous, and deeply observant of human foibles.

Principal Themes
A central theme is resistance to bland conformity. Mikes treats social niceties, etiquette and fashion as arenas where small acts of eccentricity can assert a distinct personality. He urges readers to cherish oddities, to keep a private repertoire of peculiar gestures and opinions that defy the ordinary script.
Another theme is performance: being inimitable involves a conscious shaping of how one appears to others. Mikes encourages deliberate mismatches, a misplaced compliment, a wrong tie, a contrary opinion, to provoke reactions and thus mark the speaker as memorable. Yet he warns against affectation that feels studied; the ideal is natural-seeming eccentricity rather than loud, desperate oddness.

Typical Advice and Anecdotes
Advice in the book ranges from the practical to the absurdist. Mikes might counsel readers to cultivate an unreliable memory to keep conversations unpredictable, or to adopt a strangely specific hobby that becomes a conversational lifeline. Anecdotes about encounters, travels and domestic scenes illustrate how small deviations from custom ripple into distinctive reputations.
Rather than providing checklists, the book offers patterns of thought: favor paradoxical wit over conventional praise, let your clothing tell a story rather than blend in, and never be afraid to be politely wrong. The humour comes from the imagined consequences of these choices, awkward brilliance, baffled respect, or unexpected friendships, rather than from cruelty toward the people who choose conformity.

Legacy and Appeal
How to Be Inimitable appeals to readers who enjoy literary humour that doubles as social commentary. It continues Mikes' project of making cultural observation accessible and amusing, and it resonates with anyone tired of uniformity and anxious to express a distinct self without pompousness.
The book endures because its prescriptions are more about attitude than fashion. Its compact, aphoristic pieces are easily quoted and returned to, offering a steady supply of reminders that individuality can be practiced in small, delightful ways. For those who appreciate a wry prescription for living differently, Mikes' blend of common sense and comic irreverence remains agreeable company.