The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way) is a 1988 book by "The Timelords" (Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond), better known as The KLF.

Its only use being a bit of a social history that records the aspirations of a certain strata [sic] in British society in the late eighties..." The book was prophetic about recording technology: "It's obvious that in a very short space of time the Japanese will have delivered the technology and then brought the price of it down so that you can do the whole thing at home.

Bill Drummond explained his motivations in an interview: "It was an excuse to say a lot of things I wanted to say about how the industry worked.

The book has also been translated into German, and was released as an audiobook (read by Bela B., drummer of the punk band Die Ärzte) in Germany in 2003,[2] with Drummond voicing the foreword, a motivational piece about reaching out for one's dreams today as ‘tomorrow is always too late’.

[4][5] It also proved to be an influence on 2000s British girl group The Pipettes who formed after reading the book in order to explore "the idea of being a pop machine.

"[6] Jamie Reynolds of Klaxons admitted in an interview to reading The Manual and stated that he "took direct instructions from it.... Get yourself a studio, get a groove going, sing some absolute nonsense over the top, put a breakbeat behind it, and you're away!