Dear Mary: Is there any way to wriggle out of a phone invitation?
Q. Is there a tactful way to keep one social offer on hold while waiting to see if you have…
Dear Mary: How can I check if my dentist uncle really meant to charge me?
Q. My uncle, who is a brilliant dentist, has looked after my teeth since I was little. He also sees…
The question that Dear Mary refuses to answer
Q. One of my best friends, who knows I don’t have a great social life at university, has a brother…
Dear Mary: How do you escape from a stranger's childhood trauma story?
Q. Recently a cousin and I gave a small drinks party in the USA. She had invited a very elegant…
Dear Mary: What do I do now I haven’t sent a thank-you letter?
Q. Over New Year I stayed with a man who combines being a generous and exciting host with a punctilious…
Dear Mary: How can I make my friends read the book I gave them?
Q. I gave a copy of Dan Russel the Fox by Somerville and Ross to a couple I know to be…
Dear Mary: How to stop cinema iPhone pests
Q. At a private screening of a documentary about the artist David Bomberg, a woman sitting near me in the…
Dear Mary: How can I hide my tattoo from the in-laws?
Q. I have a tattoo the length of my forearm and am worried it will alienate my new boyfriend’s parents…
Dear Mary: How can I escape my neighbour’s spy cameras?
Q. I have a problem with what might be called location blindness. I live in Balham, but when I arrange…
Dear Mary: What should I do when my dinner guests dive for their iPads?
Q. We had our son’s fiancée and her family to stay recently. After dinner, expecting conversation, we were shocked to…
Dear Mary: Lunch vs the novel
Q. I travel internationally two or three times per month for work, often with one or two colleagues. While the…
Dear Mary solves problems for Sir Les Patterson, Rachel Johnson, Rory Stewart and more
Once again Mary has invited some of her favourite figures in the public eye to submit personal queries for her…
Dear Mary: How appropriate is it to send a Christmas card with the word 'merry' to a widow?
Q. Six years ago a rather glamorous man bought the house opposite me. Although he always responds to requests for…
Dear Mary: How can I tell my mother-in-law she's being mean?
Q. My egregious mother-in-law turns 80 this December. She is not short of a bob but for one of my…
Dear Mary: How to enlist people with field marshal experience to deal with bossy party hostesses
Q. A friend generously hosts an annual Christmas party in London where we see many old friends we have been…
Dear Mary: How can I be ready when Cupid strikes?
Q. Walking at a local beauty spot the other day, I passed a handsome young man. We exchanged a few…
Mary Killen: Sandi Toksvig is wrong about the placement of the pudding fork
Sandi Toksvig, as this book’s cover declares, ‘makes Stephen Fry look like a layabout’. The broadcaster, author, comedian, actress and…
Dear Mary: How do I empty a chamberpot without my hosts noticing?
Q. One of our daughter’s godmothers has given very generous presents but never with any regularity. She was unable to…
Dear Mary: Should I thrust my backside at other people in the theatre?
Q. I am no interior decorator, but we have a couple of rather subtle paint colours in the house that…
Dear Mary — The e-cigarette party is the new Tupperware party
Q. One of my oldest and best friends, who has lived up north for years, begged me to let her…
Dear Mary: What do I do when the pizzas arrive at the opening of my art show?
Q. I spent a week in a house party abroad, with an elderly and extremely polite friend of mine and…
Dear Mary
Q. Is it acceptable to deal with time-critical online business while attending church? Some matters just won’t wait — Glastonbury tickets…
Dear Mary: How can I make a surgeon give me my book back?
Q. Towards the end of last year, I began three months of treatment for a knee replacement. During one consultation…
How can I be a member of the Chipping Norton set?
Q. I am working on becoming a member of the Chipping Norton set. Should I be pronouncing the excellent open-air…
Dear Mary: How can I make my host pour me a drink?
Q. Some years ago, on holiday in Egypt, we found ourselves in the company of a couple who wanted to…
