manners
Dear Mary
Q. Many years ago I was asked to officiate at a funeral for a family I did not know. As…
Dear Mary
Q. My husband and I have spent many happy weekends in the seaside cottage of long-standing friends. Knowing how much…
Dear Mary
Q. I have just been out to my first lunch in months. Ten of us sat around a table in…
Dear Mary
Q. Some friends persist on displaying our email addresses in large address lists when sending out round robins to all…
Dear Mary
Q. For professional reasons it is important that I am not fat. However I have put on more than a…
Dear Mary
Q. My son is having his 30th birthday next weekend and has invited 50 friends to a garden party. We…
Dear Mary
Q. On my way to Devon recently I stopped for lunch with an impeccably mannered friend. He produced first crab…
Dear Mary
Q. We invited two friends to supper in London. As they came in they said they should order their taxi…
Dear Mary
Q. I am not expected to pay rent at the cottage which has been lent to me by a super-kind…
Dear Mary
Q. Our daughter is going ahead with her wedding despite the restriction on guest numbers. Although it is a relief…
Dear Mary
Q. As we attend socially distant events, we expect of our hosts a scrupulous accommodation of our preferences around physical…
Dear Mary
Q. During lockdown I have done my level best to assist with household chores. Last week, while my wife was…
Dear Mary
Q. Just before Covid, we moved out of London with the intention of having a quiet life in the country.…
Dear Mary
Q. How can one politely stop predatory kissers? I am (or was) an affectionate and demonstrative person but I don’t…
Manners maketh America
When I moved to New York in 2005 to be the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent, the first thing I was struck…
Dear Mary
Q. I know it is rude to ask, when invited to a dinner party, ‘who else is coming?’ I assumed,…
Dear Mary
Q. Now we are instructed to mingle again, I’m sure I’m not alone in being surprised to find an awkwardness…
Dear Mary
Q. I own a small, somewhat shabby and antiquated but well-located flat in central London which I have been happy…
Dear Mary
Q. Please can you tell me the correct etiquette about signing the visitors book after you are married? Obviously you…
Dear Mary
Q. For me the hallmark of a really close friend is someone with whom you feel comfortable enough to bring…
Dear Mary
Q To your correspondent with a guest whose table manners offend (2 May), you suggest screening him off with a…
Dear Mary
Q. I am being driven to distraction by a touchy relation who has responded to the lockdown by WhatsApping me…
Antisocial distancing
Rudeness is spreading like a virus
Dear Mary
Q. Each day while working from home, I have at least one hour-long meeting via Zoom. One of my colleagues…
Dear Mary
Q. Caught in Switzerland as the ski resort shut down around my ears, and feeling like a walking health hazard,…
