Barbara Cartland's Etiquette Handbook: A Guide to Good Behaviour from the Boudoir to the Boardroom

Written nearly 50 years ago, this handbook conjures up a period when addressing work colleagues by their first names was frowned upon, wives could expect to receive a weekly allowance from their husbands, and hats were ubiquitous. Laced throughout?is Barbara Cartland's wit and wisdom. This is a?wonderfully evocative insight into manners that have largely disappeared on such topics as marriage (Unless she is ill a woman should get up and cook her husband’s breakfast before he goes to work in the morning. It is bad manners to do this in curlers, without lipstick, in a shabby dressing-gown and down-at-heel slippers.), children (Boys should be taught at a very early age—six or seven—to say "Sir" to an older man. They will continue to do this until they are about twenty-one.), romance (A young man taking a girl out for the evening usually calls for her at her parents’ house . . . It is correct for her father or mother to offer a cocktail or sherry and to talk to him for about five or ten minutes.), and table manners (Fresh fruit like apples and pears should be eaten with a silver knife and fork.).