A note every morning
Notes from Jo
On status, power, elegance and the small habits that decide how a room treats you. Written by a grandmother who learned the rules the long way round.
Three Things Never to Discuss at Dinner
Money, health and other people's marriages. Everything else is fair game. Here are the exact words I use when a table starts drifting towards one of the three.
How to Think Like Old Money (A Mindset, Not a Portfolio)
He read his hotel bill line by line while a queue formed behind him. I thought he was counting pennies. I had it the wrong way round.
Why Keep a Journal? Write Things Down, Because Your Notes Will Outlive You
On the corner of my desk sits a brown leather book the size of my palm. Everything I know about rooms, and the people who own them, started in it.
Dinner Party Etiquette: The Rules Nobody Explains
From the reply to the invitation to the note the morning after: the dinner party rules nobody explains, for men and women, modern and never stuffy.
Quiet Luxury Isn't a Look. It's a Behaviour.
A young woman at a hotel bar asked me if my coat was quiet luxury. The coat is twenty-two years old. What she wanted to buy can't be bought; it has to...
Move Quickly, Speak Slowly
The people who own the room move quickly and speak slowly. Most of us do it the other way round, and the room can hear it.
Never Chase: The Rule That Got Me Out
I didn't slam a door. I stopped running for the bus. The story of the rule that got me out, and how to use it on anyone you're tired of chasing.
The Morning Routine of Quietly Successful People
For a year I got up at a quarter to five and was unbearable by nine. The morning that works is ten minutes long, and most of it happens on paper.
Old Money Habits: Wealth Is a Habit Long Before It's a Number
Turn your shoes over and look at the heels. The habits of old money start there, a long way before anything to do with a bank.
How to Be a Gentleman: The Rules My Grandmother Wrote for Men Too
The finest door-holder I ever knew also kept the only set of keys. Eleven rules for the modern gentleman, none of which involve a cape or a puddle.
How to Write a Thank-You Note People Keep
Write it by hand, send it within two days, and mention one thing only you would have noticed. Everything else is stationery.
Old Money vs New Money: The Differences Nobody Says Out Loud
A stranger on a train asked me if I could tell old money from new by looking. Usually, I said. But I never look at the money.
How to Be Elegant: Habits of Effortlessly Elegant People
My grandmother judged a coat from the inside. Elegance works the same way: ten small habits, for men and women, that nobody can sell you.
Don't just read the notes. Live them for ninety nights.
Ninety nights from now you'll be ninety nights older either way. The only question is whether you'll have the pages to show for it.
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