A funny thing happened while I learned Hebrew

"We were texting each other sentences to make each other laugh. After a while, we had hundreds of them," said Ms Breuer.

The pair decided to publish the book themselves and spent over a year compiling the manuscript, which contains 235 sentences complete with humorous illustrations from Aubrey Smith, who is also Brighton-based.

One illustration shows a grinning bear in swimming trunks diving into a pool. The text reads: "The bear wanted a swim, so it dove into the pool. The Hebrew word for 'bear' is dov."

A sprinkling of celebrity names make up some of the sentences, such as "The actor Tom Selleck loves his beetroot" - the Hebrew for beetroot is sellek; or "The fastest car in the world belongs to Barack Obama. It goes like lightning" - bah'rak means lightning.

Journalist Julie Burchill is a fan of the method and is quoted in the book's blurb: "Even a dummy like me, who has a Hebrew reading age of four to five after five years of trying, can make sense of these gorgeous foolproof lessons."

Ms Breuer said: "Learning a language is hard work. This doesn't replace grammar. It is just another dimension that makes the process more enjoyable.

"I bumped into someone I taught 22 years ago. She started reciting the sentences to me - she said they were still completely ingrained in her brain."

Hilarious Hebrew is published by Pitango