Three minutes a day
Etiquette, wine, dress, and the canon, from a butler who has run great houses and seen everything.
For iPhone. Free to begin; the membership is $7 a month or $60 a year.
“We begin at the table, because that is where most men are found out.”
Mr. Bertram, on the first lessonThe daily lesson
Each day one lesson is set for you: what black tie actually means, how to read a wine list, who chooses the wine, what goes in the thank-you note. Then a real situation, and he tells you why, right or wrong.
The cards you miss come back until they stick. Three minutes, then he leaves you alone.
Fifteen courses
The Table and the Cellar, Conduct, Dress, the Calendar and Ideas in the Hall. Letters, the House, the Bar, Food and Grooming in the Drawing Room. Art, Music, Travel, Sport and Speaking in the Study.
The Canon
The books, films, operas, pictures and buildings that come up at dinner, on twenty-six shelves, with the paintings shown from the museums that hold them.
Say you've read it and answer for it, or read his summary and know enough for the evening.
The Passport
Four levels in every subject, Acquainted to Fluent, each one dated and signed with his line. You see how far you have come, and what the next entry asks. Ask him anything before the evening, and add an occasion: he'll rehearse you the night before.
Membership
Free, always: the lesson set for you each day, every lesson to read, three questions a day to Bertram, and the whole Canon to browse. The membership opens the rest.
A year
By the month