Etiquette
Dear Mary
Q. ‘Alfred’ is a friend of 30 years’ standing who has just married for the first time. Alfred retains all…
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Q. We moved recently and new neighbours invited us to join them for dinner at a nearby restaurant. I planned…
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Q. What is the etiquette regarding asking to drink the wine you have brought to a dinner party? The man…
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Q. My super successful son kindly gave a birthday dinner party for me in a glamorous London club. I have never…
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The language that President Barack Obama used was evidence of skulduggery, Nigel Farage declared. ‘The UK is gonna be in…
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Q. A friend of mine’s husband is in his nineties. They are a delightful couple but the husband has started…
Dear Mary
Q. What should a host do when a guest says something so embarrassing in front of the assembled company that…
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Q. Twice recently our host has clinked his glass, required us to stop relaxing and instead take part in a…
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Q. My niece, who came to stay with me in the country for the weekend, arrived without cash and asked…
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Q. I recently rediscovered a wonderful 22-year-old godson. He came to shoot for the first time and was a marvellous…
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Q. My husband-to-be and I both work full time. We are getting married from his family HQ and his kind…
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Q. For the past two New Year’s Eves we have ducked an annual party given by some acquaintances, who are…
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Q. Although I have met most of the fellow occupants of my building at residents’ meetings, we don’t socialise. However…
Dear Mary solves problems for Nicky Haslam, Nigel Slater, Professor Mary Beard and others
From Nicky Haslam Q. Being considered something of a guru on the subject of things common, can you advise me…
Dear Mary
Q. I work in the London art market. Often, when I run into a fellow dealer and ask how they…
The secret brilliance of Prince Philip’s ‘gaffes’
I’ve just been on the receiving end of a Prince Philip gaffe, of sorts, and I loved it. It was…
Dear Mary: I always end up subsidising my greedy friend’s lunch
Q. I have lunch once a month with an old university friend. Over the years we have both thickened out…
Dear Mary: How can I greet friends without clashing specs?
Q. As an old trout, large in height and breadth, I have taken a leaf out of the documentary Advanced…
Dear Mary: Another way to deal with a maddening blackhead
Q. Might I suggest an alternative solution to E.B. of London’s problem (3 October) about the person sporting a ‘maddening’…
Dear Mary: How can girls avoid freezing in cold marquees?
Q. What do you do when you are so cold at a party that you cannot enjoy it? At a…
Dear Mary
Q. I am an impoverished artist living in a famously cheap European city, largely for reasons of economy. I love…
Dear Mary
Q. I regularly travel on the Ashford-St Pancras train and usually put my case on the seat next to me…
Dear Mary
Q. I am going on a late holiday with a group of people who are keen on nude swimming, which…
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Q. How do you persuade someone drunk to leave a party when it doesn’t make sense for them to stay?…
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Q. How can you tactfully tell someone that the large skin tag or blob they have grown in the centre…
