Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #154757 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-13
• Binding: Hardcover
• 140 pages

Synopsis
Originally written for Debrett's Peerage and now something of a classic, Douglas Sutherland's guide to that endangered species, the English Gentleman, was originally written as an antidote to all the endless, dull little books on manners and etiquette: the kind read by those who long to be recognised as part of the real gentry by the way they use their finger-bowl or address an Archbishop. Both genuinely informative and yet very funny in its self-deprecating tone, The English Gentleman offers a window to the parvenu on the rather perverse world of the genuine article. It describes his habits: where he might live, what he might wear, his school, his clubs, his hobbies and sports, his family and relationships, his behaviour when abroad, his mode of speech and the acceptable way to behave in almost any given situation (invariably the very opposite of what the outsider might think). Not to mention advice on the correct attitude to have toward money (it is vulgar), sex (it is vulgar) and business (it is vulgar unless, of course, it is run at a heavy loss). It all adds up to an unmissable initiation into the eccentric social history of the stiff upper lip.

A hilarious and insightful look at the real life counterparts to the sort of squires found in the fiction of Nancy Mitford, PG Wodehouse and Compton Mackenzie. Proving that truth is often stranger than fiction.

Customer Reviews

JEEVES WOULD FIND THIS BOOK A HOOT!
Find out how the other half used to live when a gentlemen`s personal gentlemen was the norm and the conventions of society were followed to the letter, in a series of revealing and amusimg anecodotes -a spiffingly good read!

Mick Drake - author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute.

Funny book for a gentleman.
To really appreciate this book you will need to live the life of a true gentleman, or know how the other half live!

Great book with lots of short snippets. Great if you don't have a lot of time for long chapters.

The book looks at the funny side of day to day life of the gentleman and has lots of great anecdotes.

Are you upper class?
This book will help any one who would like to become a gentleman. It is written in a very funny way, I fount the book a very easy read with funny drawings. If you would like to know what sort of dog to buy or what sort of clothing you need to become an English gent then buy and read on. or a small present for the want to be snob.

You will not be sorry.