The Done Thing

This is a book for those who unashamedly want manners in the world. They are the essence of living together. And we are struggling to find rules that we can agree on in a new world where change and uncertainty are a way of life and personal responsibility is at a disastrous low. No-one wants to bow and scrape to the rhythms of outdated etiquette any more.We need to seek out the original social purpose of manners and apply the principles to life today. We need rules of respect for each other and an agreement to stick to them. Combining an appeal to history, anthropology and common sense with a witty disdain for the sillier snobberies of the traditionalists, Simon Fanshawe has borrowed the format of Erasmus's great work on behaviour, De Civilitate Morum Puerilum, and created a modern basis for good manners. So it doesn't matter if you pass the port to the right or the left as long as it goes in one direction and that way everyone gets a drink. Hold your knife any way you want except as a weapon so strangers will never feel threatened at your table. Date, eat, work, speak, dress, talk on your mobile, tip, text, take your children to eat out in any way you like as long as you do it in a way that respects other people. This is a campaign. Join now and march. In this satirical look at the history, evolution and state of manners today, Simon is a self-proclaimed middle-class busybody who is campaigning for a new approach to manners. His central message is that respect and ease are the key to twenty-first century manners. Suitable for those who unashamedly want manners in the world.