'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

Henry Hitchings was born in 1974. He has contributed to many newspapers and magazines and is theatre critic for the Evening Standard.