An old fashioned concept perhaps, but we love this guide to being a well-groomed, gracious young lady – at the ready for all of life's challenges.
Etiquette for girls, you splutter! Aren’t rules on deportment and etiquette all a bit fuddy-duddy, old fashioned, and frankly quite silly? You may think we’ve momentarily lost our marbles and gone all hoity-toity on you, but really this is an enjoyable read, made all the more so by its tongue-in-cheek approach.
Fleur Britten's sassy take on modern living and blithe approach makes for an absorbing and pleasurable read. You are, quite rightly, advised to take pride and pleasure in yourself with simple measures such as holding yourself up straight, enjoying your femininity and taking care of your wardrobe. How to negotiate the potential pitfalls of various slippery, shelled foods and who to tip at the hairdresser is followed by amusing advice on how to handle friends and boyfriends.
While there is the mandatory discussion on the fundamentals on style, special occasions, food and drink, Britten also covers the potentially perilous environments of the workplace, spas and yachts. She also goes into the finer details of gossip and bitching, blind dates, how to play the plus-one and manage an affair.
Strangely, there is something very satisfying about hearing definitively whether this or that is the done thing in varying social situations. It’s quite nice to be able to store away for future use how to eat oysters, how to extract yourself from awkward flirting situations gracefully, and how to open a bottle of champagne so it makes the perfect sigh noise instead of a pop. Of course what makes it all so much more delicious is then deciding when and where you can choose to shock, behave atrociously and break all the rules.
More than anything the advice in these pages (whether you agree with it or not) is a nice hark back to times gone by when social graces were of utmost importance. Thank goodness we live in much more relaxed and flexible times these days! But also it’s a nice reminder that presenting yourself well, behaving kindly with family and friends and making an effort to be polite and gracious can really add to the quality of day-to-day life.
Debrett’s Etiquette for Girls by Fleur Britten, is published by Debrett’s.
