Thomas Blaikie
Mwah, Mwah
One Kiss or Two? In Search of the Perfect Greeting
By Andy Scott
Duckworth Overlook 303pp £16.99 order from our bookshop
Andy Scott’s book is a study of greetings throughout history, but it is not an etiquette guide. I don’t much care for Andy as a name, especially not when it belongs to someone who hangs around Heathrow Airport observing how people greet their friends and relations in the arrivals hall. How can this man have been a diplomat? An anorak, more like, crossed with an annoying alternative person busing through Africa in deliberate discomfort trying to find the perfect salutation – as practised, ideally, by some unknown tribe with complicated hair and body piercings.
Well, these are exactly the kinds of sweeping, often disagreeable and snobbish judgements we make of each other on meeting – as the author ably demonstrates. No wonder greeting is such a nightmare. Quite soon, I got to like Andy a lot more, particularly once it became clear
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Delighted to take up the challenge of a whistle stop tour of that most, er, appropriate topic for a cleric- the history of bad language for @Lit_Review all without doing a swear. https://literaryreview.co.uk/fornicating-under-consent-of-king
‘The Secret Powers of a Swagger Stick’ - my review of Giles Milton’s (@GilesMilton1) masterful narrative ‘Checkmate in Berlin’ has just been published in Literary Review (@Lit_Review). Hope you enjoy it. Read the incredible story of Brit stick V Red Army! https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-secret-powers-of-a-swagger-stick
'We women are peculiar creatures,' says Briseis in Pat Barker's new #TheWomenofTroy. 'We tend not to love those who murder our families.' The novel – less plot- than character-driven – has the atmosphere of a short story https://literaryreview.co.uk/sufferings-of-helen @Lit_Review @PenguinUKBooks