Etiquette
Dear Mary
Q. I am organising my 21st birthday party at our family house in Italy. It is a fantastic location, but…
Dear Mary
Q. What can you do when disorganised friends say they would love to come to a concert with you but…
Dear Mary
Q. I have been trying to get an apprenticeship in fashion for over a year without success. I just had…
Dear Mary
Q. When someone gives you anti-ageing cream as a present, is that an insult or a compliment? — A.O., Provence…
Dear Mary
Q. My neighbour is really lovely and always helps me chainsaw trees. He used to be the herdsman at the…
Dear Mary
Q. We have taken a flat in Edinburgh for a month and a young girl, temporarily homeless and a friend…
Dear Mary
Q. A scholarly book of great importance to me appears to have gone missing from my library. It was heavily…
Dear Mary
Q. At a drinks or a dinner party, when very attentive waiters are hovering, I tend to let them keep…
Dear Mary
Q. I live far away from my brother and his family, but went to stay with them recently for the…
Dear Mary
Q. My 16-year-old son, who has recently had his first experiences of Clubland, has observed to me, his mother, that…
Dear Mary
Q. My dear English husband has never mastered the knack of timing his interventions in conversation. He hesitates politely, and…
The triumph of the bores
Being boring was once the worst of all social sins. Now it’s practically compulsory
Dear Mary
Q. On arrival at a top level dinner, I was surprised to see at the table a woman who, I…
Dear Mary
Q. Our son, aged l6, has a medical condition which, although not life-threatening, requires surgery by a specialist to pre-empt…
Your problems solved
Q. It’s only April and yet I am being emailed by parents who have already taken charge and are drumming…
Dear Mary
Q. I am always making or receiving phone calls which get cut off. When I ring the person back their…
Death does not become us
Shortly after Bob Crow’s death was announced on Tuesday, Nigel Farage sent the following tweet: ‘Sad at the death of…
Dear Mary
Q. Is there a tactful way to keep one social offer on hold while waiting to see if you have…
Dear Mary
Q. One of my best friends, who knows I don’t have a great social life at university, has a brother…
Dear Mary
Q. Recently a cousin and I gave a small drinks party in the USA. She had invited a very elegant…
Dear Mary
Q. Over New Year I stayed with a man who combines being a generous and exciting host with a punctilious…
Dear Mary
Q. I gave a copy of Dan Russel the Fox by Somerville and Ross to a couple I know to be…
Dear Mary
Q. I have a tattoo the length of my forearm and am worried it will alienate my new boyfriend’s parents…
Dear Mary
Q. We had our son’s fiancée and her family to stay recently. After dinner, expecting conversation, we were shocked to…
Dear Mary
Q. I know this seems petty but last year, on our villa holiday, my brother-in-law always took the best chair…
