The Butler Speaks


Book Description

Host a dinner party * Make a bed * Set a table * Use the proper fork * Polish silver * Prepare high tea * Present a calling card * Make conversation * Fold a shirt ... all with the charm, ease and sophistication of a butler. Now in its fifth printing, this beautifully illustrated style, etiquette and entertainment guide lays out the essentials of entertaining and household management in a clear, straightforward style. For anyone who rents or owns--be it a small urban condo or a lavish country estate--The Butler Speaks includes everything you need to know to simplify, organize and care for your home. Charles MacPherson offers modern advice on personal style and etiquette--how to receive guests; present your business card; make polite dinner conversation-- and advice on entertaining at home--how to make a cheese plate; hold your cutlery; set a table--all with the flair, charm and unpretentious grace of the butler.










Good Housekeeping


Book Description







Good Housekeeping


Book Description




Design at Home


Book Description

Domestic advice literature is rich in information about design, ideals of domesticity, consumption and issues of identity, yet this literature remains a relatively neglected resource in comparison with magazines and film. Design at Home brings together etiquette, homemaking and home decoration advice as sources in the first systematic demonstration of the historical value of domestic advice literature as a genre of word and image, and a discourse of dominance. This book traces a transatlantic domestic dialogue between the UK and the US as the chapters explore issues of design, domesticity, consumption, social interaction and identity markers including class, gender and age. Areas covered include: • the use of domestic advice by historians • relationships between advice, housing and the middle class • links between advice and gender • advice and the teenage consumer Design at Home is essential reading for students and scholars of cultural and social history, design history, and cultural studies.




English Etiquette


Book Description

"This is not another etiquette book detailing the antiquated, excruciating, and frankly confusing minefield of rules lauded by traditionalists. Let's face it, many of us will never need to know which side a snail fork should be placed at the dinner table, nor are we likely to 'take tea' with the Queen. Yet we could all do with a little help in perfecting our manners, self-confidence, and social graces for everyday living. English Etiquette details everything the English know about why etiquette matters, in a modern, understandable, and unpretentious way -- while teaching you how to cultivate a traditional and charming countenance to rival any royal. Covering topics such as gallantry and grace, common decency, lifestyle choices, the quintessential English wardrobe, and behaviour in the home, you will learn how to shoehorn a little English gentility from this practical field guide into your daily life. So pull your socks up ladies and gentlemen, pour yourself a cup of tea, and join The Darling Academy as we return to a culture of good manners, civility, and chivalry the world is longing for. A proper, polite, and graceful way of living is making a comeback. Long may it prevail."--Page 4 of cover.







How to Be an American Housewife


Book Description

A mother-daughter story about the strong pull of tradition, and the lure and cost of breaking free of it. When Shoko decided to marry an American GI and leave Japan, she had her parents' blessing, her brother's scorn, and a gift from her husband-a book on how to be a proper American housewife. As she crossed the ocean to America, Shoko also brought with her a secret she would need to keep her entire life... Half a century later, Shoko's plans to finally return to Japan and reconcile with her brother are derailed by illness. In her place, she sends her grown American daughter, Sue, a divorced single mother whose own life isn't what she hoped for. As Sue takes in Japan, with all its beauty and contradictions, she discovers another side to her mother and returns to America unexpectedly changed and irrevocably touched.