Though written in the style of foreign language book, Teach Yourself Doric is intended as a work of entertainment, designed to amuse those already familiar with the speech patterns of North-east Doric. Containing study texts and questions for "students" to answer, it is, in fact, a spoof language book. That most readers got the joke was clear from the fact that the book very quickly became a Scottish best-seller; this, despite the efforts of two critics who reviewed it as a teaching manual and a Glasgow bookshop which displayed it in the foreign language section.