manners
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. How can I find out, without making things awkward, whether one of my close male friends fancies one of…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My 74-year-old husband was having drinks in the garden of some young clients when he bit down on an…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My parents are abroad for two months and as my flatmates in London are all, like me, working from…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Everyone was divine at a very jolly lunch I attended in the Cotswolds with the exception of one person,…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I have found parties frustrating this month because they have been too crowded. Is there a polite way to…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My girlfriend and I have started using a personal trainer for some joint sessions at our local gym; the…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. In order to raise money for a worthwhile cause, I have agreed to open my garden for the first…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My wife’s father, who she adored, has died and she is to be his sole beneficiary. She intends to…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I’m 28 and lucky enough to own a four-bed house in Notting Hill. I let three of the rooms…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Financially successful friends have kindly invited my husband and me to stay for a week in France. Our problem…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. A great friend is in a terrible state regarding a cat foisted on her by a close relation. She…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My brother’s social life has dried up since his divorce (which coincided with the pandemic). So when he received…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I live in the Hampshire countryside, in a lovely apartment where I have the use of an old walled…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My husband has developed an irksome habit whenever he goes abroad without me. We have cameras outside the house…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Rory Sutherland recently wrote about high-end takeaways (Wiki Man, 19 February). In the last London lockdown, I was fortunate…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Recently I started hanging out with a new friend. We are both in our twenties, single, and usually go…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Three weeks ago I banged my head on the lower branch of our near neighbours’ tree, which I couldn’t…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. As if it wasn’t bad enough to overhear one side of a conversation as it’s bellowed into a mobile…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My partner’s work involves him seeing and talking to people all day, every day. I booked us on to…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My husband and I have made friends with two distinguished, although fairly eccentric, writers whose company we thoroughly enjoy.…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I treat myself to a manicure every ten days. It’s a 30-minute appointment and the girl I use is…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My cleaner is industrious and trustworthy but she doesn’t have many people to talk to and evidently looks forward…
High life
Gstaad Who was it who said good manners had gone the way of black and white TV? Actually it was…
Dear Mary
From Lady Antonia Fraser Q. I enjoy getting readers’ letters, but there is one category I am at a loss…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I will shortly be attending a major social gathering in London at which I can look forward to seeing…
