Debrett's Guide for the Modern Gentleman

Although Debrett’s Guide for the Modern Gentleman looks like a volume originally published just after the Civil War and contains information about how to approach a lady to whom you have not been formally introduced at the spring social, it is anything but.  The copyright date is July 2009 and it is a thoroughly modern volume.  (Debrett’s authors are English and there are some slight cultural differences, certainly nothing that affects my recommendation of the book.)

Debrett’s is divided into nine sections:

• Man at Work: From tailoring rules to boardroom success

• Maintenance: From the barber’s chair to the ultimate workout

• At Home: From vinyl and audio-visual to stylish interiors

• City Life: From top tables and tipping to opera and art

• Time Off: From dinner jackets and denim to casinos and golf

• Motoring: From essential maintenance to classic collectables

• The Traveller: From sandy beaches to edible insects

• Gastronomy: From the finest vintages to the gourmet kitchen

• New Chivalry:  From successful seduction to bedroom behaviour

Each section is composed of very short articles that are extremely concise, give you some bare “best practices” sort of information and little more.  An example is the article in the section on shoes titled “Polishing Rules.”

Polishing regularly but briefly will give better results than polishing sporadically but vigorously.

It is best to use shoe polish or wax, though good quality shoe cream can be effective — avoid the sponge-like devices that claim to contain polish.

Black shoes, being colourless, should reflect as much light as possible; however, the tone of brown shoes should be emphasised, so polish them with a wax of slightly lighter colour than the shoe itself.

That’s it.  But you really don’t need to know much else, do you?

Opening the book at random, I find an article titled, “The Ultimate Record Collection: From rock to rap, the albums you must own,” another on the rules of various casino games, how to change a bicycle tire, how to pack a suitcase, which wines to buy from which regions, business etiquette in different parts of the world.

I don’t know that I consider Debrett’s either a must-have book or authoritative on any particular subject, but it’s a handy little volume to have because it contains good, solid, easy to find and use information on just about anything that is or should be of interest to the modern gentleman.  A 200 page hardback at around $20 from Amazon, it’s worth a place in a gentleman’s bookshelf.  Recommended.