The Perfect Hostess

by Rose Henniker Heaton, Alfred E. Taylor (Illustrator)

From the front-inside dustcover:

“This charming book of rhyming rules is a nostalgic look at that bygone era when the perfect hostess’s maid put out your dinner gown, and the perfect host met you at the station with chauffeur, footman, and Rolls-Royce.

Illustrated with delightful period drawings, it covers every problem of running a home from simple rules for simple servants to the qualities that make marriage a success. Every possible guest is treated by Miss Henniker Heaton with the same care, whether he be Captain Fitznoodle who announces his intention of dining with you one day next week, or a friend from the tropics who arrives TO STAY!

There are sinfully delicious menus for every occasion including buffet lunches for the local cricket team, picnics, and suppers before the theatre. Interesting sidelights for the truly perfect hostess include rules for bridge, stray thoughts on beds, ideas for children’s parties and a list of necessities for every room in the house.

Almost fifty years later, this is still the perfect gift for any hostess. The text has been faithfully reprinted from the original; only the servants have been changed to protect the guilty.”

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Self Help, Poetry

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1931

Reviews

[^ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful and whimsical pot pourri of gentle advice delivered through Good Behaviour. Utterly charming, thoughtful, amusing, interesting, and useful.

In places the text provides an historical eye-opener. For example, "Miss Moppytop (aged 4) hangs up her Christmas Stocking" (pg 122) and receives:

A Tangerine wrapped in silver paper
A Walnut wrapped in gold paper
An enormous Pencil
A tiny Fan
A Doll's Black Gingham Umbrella
Some tiny Crackers
A Doll's dinner Set
A tiny pack of cards
Biscuits in the shapes of animals
A Red Skipping-rope
A Tape measure that springs out of an apple

i.e. the notion of the idea is prized above the value. A valuable lesson for children today?

[Carma · Rating 5 out of 5]

My all-time favorite etiquette book. Part of being the perfect hostess is "the gentle art of snubbing." Try the recipe for Potted Shrimp. Take the notes on letter writing and complaining about one's husband to heart.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given this as a surprise birthday gift and it is splendid and enormously amusing! One of my favorite quotes:

"What to say to a wife who comes to complain of her husband.
Procedure (A): Be sympathetic. Urge her to leave her home immediately. Repeat any gossip you have heard concerning her husband. Advise her not to dream of putting up with anything of the sort. Tell her to make him apologise.
Procedure (B): Be sympathetic. Advise her to ask herself calmly if, with all his faults, she would prefer to be living at home with her parents."

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

My beautiful and spirited grandmother comes alive in the pages of this book, the reader can dip in and out at random and be heartwarmingly amused. It is very funny! There is a strong thread of intelligent ‘cool’ throughout which would not go amiss in today’s world.

[Catherine Slater]

I thought this was an etiquette book, but its a series of poems, and short paragraphs. A lot is amusing but it is very much of its time too. Cigarettes are a way of life and at the end in the secrion on children's parties there are some unintentionally racist comments.

[Alessandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightfully witty vintage etiquette manual from 1931 England. It includes menus, advice, recipes, and humorous poems.

Just for personal reasons I love the facing pages, "The Unknown Artist says he will drop in about Eight or Nine" and "The Royal Academician will Dine at a Quarter to Eight," each with appropriate menu and a delightful pen-and-ink illustration.

I don't know if Ms. Heaton ever wrote for Punch, but that's what this manual feels like.

[Jasmiina F · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit outdated, but a funny little book.