A good conversation can come close to heaven, turn a stranger into a friend, save lives and marriages, engender reason and bring out the best in everyone. The oldest and most captivating of all the arts, the ability to talk, listen, enthral, be enthralled, find common ground or in other words ‘click’ with someone, nevertheless remains a rare skill.

In this manual, Catherine Blyth shows us how to chatter and flatter, how to spot listener fatigue, how to complain and how to change the subject. She warns us of ‘the dark game of greetings and introductions’, the dangers of false smiles, ‘autocue charm’ and too much eye contact. In