Manners need a modern upgrade to deal with things agony aunts of the past could never dream of; when is it OK to re-gift? Does a text count as a thank you?
The editors of The Gentlewoman, a biannual magazine bring together advice and tips from everyone from Hilary Mantel to Kylie Minogue, have curated a new book of essays Modern Manners: Instructions for Living Fabulously Well.
Editor Penny Martin tells Jesse Mulligan the magazine is for and about female role models.
Penny Martin Photo: Thomas Lohr
“We’ve been in publication for about 11 years. We’re based in London but published internationally and it’s true, we have an ever burgeoning roster of women of purpose in our library.
“It’s really a magazine for readers rather than consumers, I think.”
She describes the essays, which are various pieces published in the magazine over the years, as being less about etiquette and more about women encountering obstacles in life and how they overcame them and what advice they can impart.
“Whether it be the highs and lows of edible drugs and the politics of their marketing and consumption, or the idea about taking back your privacy when we’ve given so much away. People have observed that many of these pieces are really about refusing certain aspects of the digital world.
“I think part of dealing with and enduring modern life is about noticing something and finding out how to perfect it. This desire to pass the benefits and culture of doing this thing on in conversation – it’s a very conversational magazine.”
Photo: supplied
One thing Martin has noticed with the end of lockdowns is that many people are now having to attend the sorts of things that they admitted they were happy to miss during lockdown. People, she says, have a hard time saying no.
“They’re not rules, these are a set of suggestions and I think that’s they way we go about things at The Gentlewomen generally. It’s not meant to be some kind of inflexible dictate, it’s about a set of guidelines if you so wish.”
