Bat Your Eyelashes: How to be Well Mannered with Style

Remember that person that cut you off last week? Or that guy that seemed really nice until he dumped you via Facebook?
It’s sad to say (and probably makes me seem really old) but manners do seem to be going out the window these.

And it’s something we’re all a bit guilty of. Hands up whose ditched their hairdresser without a word and now skulks guiltily past the salon when you just can’t avoid it? I admit it, I have done just that. (I’m not proud of it.)

Well a great little book that we’ve discovered, Bat Your Eyelashes: How to Be Well Mannered With Style by Marianne Vicelich, aims to revive the use of manners and, unlike the infamous Emily Post Etiquette books, applies to today’s situations.

Bat Your Eyelashes begins by discussing exactly why we still need manners in the 21st Century – and how being well mannered can help you in life. Most importantly, it talks about how manners are a way of not only respecting others, but respecting yourself as well. It also explains how knowing how to act in a situation is the key to being well liked.

The book is not only gorgeous (glossy black cover with pale pink inner pages and a gorgeous pink ribbon to mark your page), but is also chock full of information on a range of subjects – from how hire a broker to manage your finances, read the financial pages, the correct etiquette in the elevator at work and gym, yes, how to break up with your hairdresser (hint: I should have been honest and said why I was unhappy rather than skulking past the salon in shame).

Then of course there are the sticky social questions, which are also tackled: How exactly does one reject a friend request on Facebook without offending? Should you comment on your friends extremely obvious plastic surgery,  and, lest you think all the fun is being taken out of life, exactly when and why killer stilettos are a woman’s secret weapon, and how to rock them with the style they deserve.

There are twenty two chapters devoted to topics such as Choosing a Prospective Partner, Taboo Topics, Technology At Its Best and Pooches That Dine Out as well as a Ex-Etiquette Examined,  which is a one stop shop to moving on and ensuring you don’t become the crazy Facebook stalker chick (because really, someday, someone will invent something which means you can see who has been checking out your Facebook, so Facebook stalker behaviour is best not learnt in preparation for that day.)

This is a great little book filled with gems of information, but what makes it most appealing the underlying theme on each tip: By taking the time to care about the other person or people involved in a situation, we can all make the world (and others) a little bit happier. Not to be mention that it makes that ‘I’m-trying-to-channel-an-Audrey-Hepburn-style-vibe’ that much easier when you know you’ve got the manners to do it in style.

Check out http://www.batyoureyelashes.com.au for more info and you can also get your hands on Bat Your Eyelashes: How To Be Well Mannered with Style for $34.95 via the website.