Manners

Good manners aren't about cutlery, codes or cleverness - they're about kindness.

Writers and broadcasters Kay Plunkett-Hogge and Deborah Robertson have honed their combined social wisdom into a warm, witty, how-to guide on how to live modern life with manners - and have a lot of fun along the way.

Debora and Kay have done the fieldwork, made the mistakes, and committed enough embarrassing faux pas for two lifetimes, in the hope that you don't have to! Their funny, frank handbook is your cheat sheet to every social situation, your right-hand man(ual) to styling out life with sass and a modicum of grace. Their tried-and-tested guidelines are divided into five main categories:

• At Home: family life; sharing is caring; entertaining at home; dinner; welcome to the neighbourhood
• At Large: work; public spaces; public transport and petiquette - pets in public
• At Play: social life; eating out, staying away; dating in the modern world
• @ Your Computer: digital decorum; phones
• At the End: dealing with illness and death

Good manners are not about knowing what to wear for drinks at six, being pretentious or catching people out with some mysterious salad-fork-related regulation. In essence, good manners are simply organised kindness, and Kay and Deborah will show you how being in possession of them will enhance the quality of your everyday life and that of the people around you.

About the Author

Debora Robertson is a dog enthusiast, food writer and journalist who has written for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, Red, Waitrose Kitchen, Sainsbury's Magazine and Saga Magazine, among many others. She lives in north London with her husband Sean, a dog, a cat and a mountain of cookbooks.