Year of the Gentleman | Norton of Morton

Whatever happened to strolling in the moonlight, picking flowers for the woman of your dreams and generally being a chivalrous sort of chap?

In today’s society it seems that too many men are rude, badly-dressed and spend far too much time watching football and drinking beer, more often than not with their hands stuffed down their trousers.  

However, I really do believe that there is a desire for change bubbling beneath the surface. A desire to become a better man. To become a gentleman. Can you feel it?

I would like to encourage the gentrification of the polyester-clad masses and to celebrate the chivalry that is still alive and well. To achieve this, I am calling upon the knowledgeable and eminent readership of Norton of Morton to support my crusade for 2013 – Year of the Gentleman.   

Let us make 2013 the year to stand up and be counted. For man to take his first tentative step towards Gentleman. To become the envy of his peers. To be viewed in wide-eyed admiration from fair maidens. To be the kind of man his children (or future children) can look up to and want to be like. Given a little work, almost any man can exude the most David Niven-panache. 

Of course, I understand that times have changed and not all men would feel comfortable treading the same path that their great-grandfathers followed. We now live in a different world compared to one hundred years ago when the archetypal English gentleman would have been gallant to the fairer sex, had a pew in the church, was privately educated and had a stiff upper lip.

Although 2013 is a completely different place to how it was in 1913, the same gentlemanly principles still apply – good manners, decency, dressing smartly and the desire to properly woo and worship a lady.  

My aim for 2013 is to make it my mission to turn more men into gentlemen by offering tips, encouragement and sharing my experiences. I do hope you will join me.

The revolution starts now.

G.M. Norton
Protagonist of ‘Norton of Morton’

P.S. If you witter on Twitter, please do use the hashtag #yearofthegentleman 

P.P.S. Thank you to dear Porcelina for bestowing upon me my second Liebster blog award. I have now constructed a trophy room to proudly display them.