My Book And I
In my nearly decade long experience as an etiquette consultant, I have stumbled and read several etiquette books many of which have shaped my sense of etiquette. I can never forget Eleanor Boykin’s classic ‘This Way Please’ which ranks among one of the best books on etiquette I have ever read. Kay West and John Bridges have done excellently well with their volumes. However in putting together my own book titled: ‘Proper Manners And Etiquette In Anything, At Anytime And Anywhere’, I decided to distinguish it by including a lot of pictures because Illustrations and pictures send the message across more effectively than just words. It also became clear to me that the average Nigerian was not at all enamored with long write-ups. Sharp and precise articles would be greeted with more alacrity. So in writing this book, I deliberately employed a lot of illustrative pictures.
Also, I observed that most of the books did not cover what I believe to be the six major areas of etiquette which are Dress Etiquette, Communications Etiquette, Dining Etiquette Public Place Etiquette, Office Etiquette and most importantly politeness.
I fondly define etiquette as the proper way to do anything anytime anywhere. In anything that can be done in life, there are etiquette rules to doing those things. There is the etiquette of smoking! Smoking? Yes, Smoking. There is also the etiquette of sleeping (which though is not one of the areas covered in my book)! Do you know that if you sleep in the wrong position, you put yourself at the risk of snoring! Many of these areas, I have looked into in my years of writing this column. With Proper Manners And Etiquette In Anything, At Anytime And Anywhere, I try to cover as many areas of etiquette as possible. Take dining etiquette for example, I do not only talk about basic dining etiquette but I also go into other areas like Buffet Etiquette, (do you know that at a buffet is quite different from an All-You-Can-Eat? The difference is simply that at an All-You-Can-Eat, you can practically go for as many helpings as you desire while at a buffet you simply serve yourself but do not have the privilege of going for as many additional helpings or what some may know as “rounds” as you please!). I look into Restaurant Etiquette (Do you know that the manner in which you lodge a complaint at a restaurant party if you are a guest, is quite different from the way you would if you were a host! Also, at a standard restaurant you can actually bring your wine along. You don’t have to purchase wine at the restaurant provided you pay what is called a corkage fee?). There is the proper way to order wine, refuse wine, taste wine and pour wine! All these and more including how to eat difficult-to-eat-foods such as spaghetti, bread and soup, salad etc are covered in my book.
Next week I’ll look into the many other areas I covered in the book. Like I mentioned in the book’s introduction, I grew up not being the most tidy careful fastidious or persnickety. But the practices I share in this book changed me for good. In whatever area you are yet to attain perfection I hope it does the same for you.
You could purchase a copy at the price of N3,500. At our corporate head office at 340 - 344 Ikorodu Road, By Idi-Iroko Bus Stop, Maryland, Lagos. Or call 0802 312 6010 or 0811 266 1635 to have a copy sent to you.