The Done Thing

A much-needed and satirical new look at an age-old topic — the history, evolution and state of manners — from an award-winning comic and writer.

This is a book for those who would like to see good manners reintroduced into a bad-mannered world. The old rules of etiquette don’t seem to apply any more and, understandably, no one wants to bow and scrape to them either. And yet, good manners are essential if we are to live, work and play together in harmony. What we need are new rules that we can agree on in a world where change and uncertainty are a way of life, and personal responsibility has all but gone to the dogs.

What are we to do? Simon Fanshawe believes we must rediscover the original purpose of good manners and apply these principles to our lives today. We need rules of respect for each other and a consensus to stick to them. Combining history, anthropology and common sense with a witty disdain for the sillier snobberies of the traditionalists, The Done Thing, borrowing the format of Erasmus’s great work on behaviour, De Clvilitate Morum Puerilum, sets out a modern basis for good manners.

So it doesn’t matter if you pass the port to the right or the left, as long as it goes in one direction and everyone gets a drink. You can hold your knife any way you like, except as a weapon, so strangers will never feel threatened at your table. You can go on a date, eat, work, speak, dress, talk on your cell phone, tip, take your children to a restaurant. As long as you do it in a way that shows respect for other people. This is a campaign. Join now and march.

Simon Fanshawe is a Perrier Award-winning comic, writer and broadcaster. He has his own series on Radio Four — Fanshawe Gets to the Bottom Of. He also writes for the Guardian, Observer and Telegraph.