Sorry! The English and Their Manners

'A writer of apparently limitless learning and intelligence, who writes works of scholarship masquerading as popular narrative non-fiction . . . the man is something else' * Guardian *
'An excellent history, just don't read it at the dinner table . . . this insightful book will give you pause the next time you wipe your nose on the duvet or - social death! - top up your host's glass at a New Year's Eve party' * The Times *
'Amusing and enlightening . . . he is particularly insightful in depicting the evolutionary shift manners have taken since they were first codified on paper in the Middle Ages' * Financial Times *
'[Hitchings] is a lovely writer, full of interesting ideas and neat turns of phrase' * Daily Mail *
'Hitchings has made a bold, entertaining and often imaginative, assault on a fundamentally impossible subject' * Observer *
'Manners is a fascinating subject, and Hitchings handles it with all his customary wit, knowledge and elegance' * Mail on Sunday *
'Highly entertaining and absorbing book' * Daily Telegraph *
'Understated elegance . . . it is itself an impeccably well-mannered and deeply English product' * The Spectator *
'Witty and sharp . . . full of diverting nuggets and anecdotes . . . elegantly written' * Sunday Times *
'A scholarly study of English manners' * Country Life *
'Illuminating and entertaining' * Sunday Telegraph *
'Hitching's shares provocative opinions . . . he exhibits an appetite for confounding myths about social mores' * Metro *
'Endlessly entertaining' * Literary Review *
'Diverting new book' * Lady *
An elegant and erudite book . . . Hitchings has an encyclopaedic mind, but like the well-mannered Englishman he is, wears his learning lightly * Independent *
Full of diverting nuggets and anecdotes * Sunday Times *
Very well-mannered and authoritative survey of British behaviour * Sunday Telegraph *
What better book for a foreign beach than an exploration of our enduring stereotypes. This history of faux pas and foibles is ideal for broadcasting entertaining 'Did-you-knows?' * Mail on Sunday *
He's terrific. He's struck the perfect balance between hard academic insight and sheer readability - and achieves both * Evening Standard *
Scholarly without being heavy, and rich with acute anecdotes and diversions into social history . . . Pacy and enthusiastic, Hitchings's book entertains and enlightens * Daily Telegraph *
The erudite and witty Henry Hitchings is the perfect guide through the minefield of social conventions we call manners * Mail on Sunday *