What Manners Most

Manners consulting, etiquette classes, public speaking, on-camera expert. Thomas P. Farley is a manners expert, author and consultant who has been interviewed on matters of etiquette by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor, People Style Watch, CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS, as well as on radio stations across the country. As the overseer of Town & Country’s “Social Graces” column from 2000 to 2008, he helped that magazine’s readers grapple with topics as diverse as “Elevator Etiquette” and “Horrible Things People Do in Public.” His Town & Country anthology, Modern Manners: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Social Graces, published in 2005, went into multiple printings. He is also a featured contributor in the book The Experts Guide to Doing Things Faster (Clarkson Potter; 2008). In addition to his writings and media appearances, Farley has been a guest lecturer at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies and does manners and etiquette classes and appearances for schools and corporations. “It’s important for both adults and kids to know that being mannerly doesn’t entail memorizing long lists of rules,” he says. “It usually just means thinking twice before you act.”