Our columnist solves your social behaviour problems. This week: at a dinner party

Dear Hetty,
I am shortly to give a dinner party, and I wondered if it was still necessary to have all the cutlery (e.g. meat fork, soup spoon, dessert fork, butter knife) present and correct, or whether, in these days of austerity, this would seem old-fashioned, and it would be better to “scale down” rather. Thank you in advance for your help.
Mrs. Amelia Pierpoint-Knapper, Hove

Dear Mrs. Pierpoint-Knapper,
As a famous man once said “if a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” Personally speaking, I always lay out my table with all the correct eating and serving utensils (including grapefruit spoon, lobster pick, runcible spoon, and crab cracker) in the correct place, even if I’m eating a Morrisons microwave lasagne on my own.
Do insist on the correct table setting for your party -it doesn’t take long and your guests will appreciate it (unless they’re Americans of course, but that goes without saying.) If you require a few “pointers”, the setting goes, in a clockwise direction, napkin, bread plate, bread knife, cake fork, desert spoon, water glass, wine glass, squash glass, Um Bongo glass, tea spoon, dinner knife, mussel wrench, salad fork, dinner fork, custard sieve,service plate, television remote control.
Good luck with your party, please try not to bring shame upon your country.

Hetty X

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