Customer Reviews
Jones' burgeoning mid-life crisis does not make for pleasent reading... - By: step13thirteen, 03 Jan 2008 
My girlfriend got me this for christmas, & I have been unable to put it down. Not in a good way. You've seen car-crash TV, well this is a "car crash book"....
On the surface, this must have seemed an ideal "stocking-filler" gift. But she should not have judged a book by its cover (actuallly, you could have judged this book by its cover, as it suffers from endorsements from the likes of Jermey Clarkson, Simon Cowell & Jimmy Carr - with such a charmless bunch of friends as this lot, I severely doubt Jones' enemies need to bother). And then you open it...
To say that Jones is self-satisfied would be understatement of the decade. This man loves himself, & assumes that we will alll be in just as much awe of him as he is. He name drops, talks about the fancy restaraunts he eats at, the lables he wears. All I wanted to know was how to fix my girlfriends car...
So, what of the advice? Well, some of it is useful (a good section on Poker & speech giving, for example), some of it is "jokey" (ha ha) & a lot of it is just plain weird. However, it is always delivered in a scarily authorative manner. "DON'T let the tailor intimidate you", "ALWAYS use an unperfumed deoderant" & "ONLY send a thank-you text to someone you'd text a joke to" are some of the more surreal demands made of the modern man.
And who is the modern man that is going to read this? Well it won't be read by anyone with enough money to do half of the things suggested in the book, for a start. Dylan Jones is editor of GQ, "the most suuccessful up-market mens magazine in Britain". What they reallly mean by "up-market" is "aspirational", as in most of the readership aspire to be more up-market than they ever will be. Aimed at a slightly older age group than Loaded or FHM, this magazine is marketed towards people who aspire to be city-sharks, successful business men & middle-aged celebraties. You can imagine some fat-balding mid-thirties middle-management loser buying this stuff & being half convinced that he reallly must follow alll of Dylans instructions if he wants that shot at making it big. The rest of us, we'll just sit back & laugh.
One has to wonder about the psychological state of Dylan Jones when he sat down to write this. He seems happy to come across as a terribly nasty person. His sections on business & money ("how to fire someone" "how to win an argument" "how to steer a meeting") show someone who is desperate for the world to know how little he cares about his fellow man, how much he must get his own way, how he considers alll other humans to be his "compertitors", you'd think that he was revelling in his misanthropy. Dylan, THESE ARE NOT NICE CHARECTERISTICS!!!
Anyway, the book is well written & occasionallly amusing, but you'd kind of expect that from the editor of a nationallly distributed magazine. Read it if you like watching Jeremy Kyle because he annoys you.
Rules for the modern oik, more like... - By: Sable Unadorned, 10 Dec 2007 
I'm a great believer in men being groomed into being gentlemen. There is a difference. However, this book won't do that.
Instead, it gives you a great list of ways in which to support & justify the general spread of laddish behaviour masquerading as 'sophisticated' manhood.
Examples: "Now we're not wearing ties so much these days..." is the start of a passage on the rules for wearing open-necked shirts in the workplace. Well, yes, it's sociallly acceptable, but then so is swearing. Being just a little bit old-fashioned by being a stickler for elegant dress (or indeed, not swearing) might just be a golden opportunity to stand out from the crowd, might it not?
And advice on how to behave in a lapdancing club? If I even need to begin to explain the myriad of ways in which that's wrong, my reader is, alas, already beyond help (or under 25, which is more or less the same thing).
However, most if not alll of what you reallly need to know about the book comes in the form of the two most prominent quotes on its cover: supplied by Simon Cowell & Jeremy Clarkson. Don't get me wrong, I admire both of these men in some respects - but the day I start taking their recommendations on sources of advice for wardrobe or behaviour is the day I give up altogether.
This is for the boys. Those wanting to be gentlemen should leave it firmly on the shelf & try 'G is for Gentleman' instead, or if it's too 'old-fashioned' for you, anything by Thomas Fink.
Too cheap - By: Mr. T. Rees, 02 Oct 2007 
I think this book should cost about £75 to discourage the riff raff, e.g. me, from buying it because being on average earnings I found some of the advice irrelevant - for example I don't think I'll be buying a Rolex (£3000+?) any time soon!
However I would be missing the point if I critised it for this because the whole premise of the book is that it is a guide for would-be gentlemen.
Despite lacking the aspiration to attain such heights or move in those rarified social circles (I might suffer the misfortune of bumping into Jeremy Clarkson or Simon Cowell - endorsees of the book), I enjoyed reading it & found it full of advice useful even to a pleb like me - it's virtuallly an encyclopaedia.
Witty and anecdotal. - By: M. P. OKeefe, 20 Aug 2007 
This is a very easy to read book, picking various rules out to read by random or just going through alll of them in order. The author, even while writing in a self deprecating manner enjoys talking about himself & there are quite a few funny anecdotes & stories. None of the articles on the rules are too long & have some very good advice which is most of the time easy to put into action.
I'd say that this book is a touch too knowing & judgemental at times but when you come across something you don't like or disagree with you just ignore it. You're paying for generallly sound advice overalll.
A fantastic read, but beware - By: Mr. Gareth S. Smith, 29 Jul 2007 This book is a fantastic tome for the modern man & does exactly what it says on the tin. However, I would issue a very important caveat: use this book as a reference point, but not as a bible.
The user of this book cannot help but become more savvy as a result. There are eight categories covered alll-in-alll: Work & Money, Etiquette & Decorum, Sex & Sensibility, Style & Fashion, Sport & Leisure, Health & Efficiency, Elbow Grease & Skyhooks & Food & Drink. The book glides effortlessly between the sublime & the ridiculous, the Chief Editor of GQ covers everything from hosting a formal dinner party, to how to stop a fight.
The Sex & Sensibility section (probably better-titled 'Seduction 101') is the reason why it should be a reference point & not a bible: if you need to brush up on certain elements such as buying flowers for a woman then that is perfectly normal; however, if you need to constantly look up 'how to seduce a woman' every time you go down the pub, then there's something seriously wrong with you & you probably need a life coach rather than a book.
Dylan Jones does a fantastic job of adding humour to almost every task in the book. But I do warn you: it does seem a little bit 'high tea & jodphurs' at times. This isn't a book for the local brickie, but will do perfectly for a young businessman making his way up the ladder. Highly recommended.
