Other books to follow The Little Book of Tube Etiquette

Since The Little Book of Tube Etiquette became available in Waterstones Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square branches (shameless plug but had to be done), my friends and colleagues have been approaching me with ideas of follow ups.

I don't think I'm ready to publish another one just yet, still working on promoting the first if I'm honest, but here are some of the best ideas nonetheless:

The Little Book of Event Etiquette - how to behave at different types of events
The Little Book of Wedding Etiquette - what not to do at someone else's wedding
The Little Book of Bus Etiquette - self-explanatory of course
The Little Book of Driving Etiquette - ahoy all road ragers
The Little Book of Cinema Etiquette - is there much else to say other than be quiet, mobiles off and dont chew sweets obsessively in my ear?

My personal favourite is The Little Book of airplane etiquette - think of all the fun I could have looking at the awful things people do on long-haul flights...

Some of these sound like serious etiquette guides, but I would definitely want to add a humorous twist.

Which of the above would you like to see on Britain's bookshelves?


Laura King is the author of The Little Book of Tube Etiquette, available at Waterstones Piccadilly, Amazon and other online retailers.
@LauraKing14
http://www.facebook.com/#!/littlebookof.tubeetiquette
http://www.gibsonpublishing.co.uk/
http://www.self-publish-my-book.co.uk/

The Little Book of Tube Etiquette: children + rush hour = hell

I actually quite like children and eventually, one day, will want to have some of my own.

However, there is no one that can convince me that taking children on the London Underground during rush hour is a good idea.

Firstly it's not really fair to the child. They have not been adequately prepared for such hell as a rammed tube carriage full of sights and smells they'll never have witnessed before (and never want to again) - let alone the violence and competition involved between fellow commuters to try and get a seat.

More importantly, it's not fair to us - the commuter. We have paid ever increasing fares to use this painful mode of transport so why should we have to give up our whole seat for a small and energetic child, who won't sit still long enough to make good use of the seat? Especially as it's clearly a very energetic and healthy child based on the fact that we can hear it has full use of its lungs from the next carriage.

Furthermore, even if the person next to me gets up for the child to sit down, or even if the child is sat on their parent's lap, said child is very likely to rub their sticky grubby mitts in our faces and make us feel all OCD for the rest of the day about what germs we've incurred. Seriously, why do parents let them do this?

Indeed, the worst kind of parent is one who naturally assumes everything about their small minion is delightful. This normally means actually willing innocent members of the public on to be interactive with their child. This is highly irritating and rather rude to assume that we are impressed by a child as they are. Cue willing the child on to sing at the top of their voice on a packed tube carriage while mother/father/nanny claps boisterously and makes you do the same.

And all of this is without going into detail about the obvious distress and non-stop screaming. I mean, I understand why the child is screaming, I often feel like doing the same but it's simply awful to listen to - whether in morning rush hour or evening when you just want peace and quiet before or after another long day in the office.

Frankly, I blame the parents. Either don't travel in rush hour with young children and if you absolutely must, make sure they are 100% well behaved, don't take up their own seat, and preferably keep their hands and voices to themselves.

Thanks.

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The Little Book of Tube Etiquette can be bought at retailers including http://www.http//www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Book-Tube-Etiquette/dp/0956710107/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309198983&sr=8-1
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Forget tube etiquette - remember the real victims

I often portray so-called 'victims' of a lack of tube etiquette in this blog and it's often a light-hearted attempt at humour faced with the observation of, let's face it, a mix of rude and the generally clueless tube users.

However, it's weeks like this that put things into perspective.  So, in the memory of all those injured or killed six years ago in the London tube bombings I will not blog about people barging into others to get a seat, pushing on to tubes before they get off or spilling hot coffee on us.

It is the sixth anniversary of the London tube bombings and this year we have heard all about the inquest from the bereaved families in accounts relayed by the UK press.

So for this entire week of 7th July, I'm going to bite my tongue every time someone displays a lack of etiquette on the London Underground and instead remember those that were genuinely faced by very real terror on that awful day six years ago.

The tales of courage still astound me to this day, from those that remained helping the injured and dying in the darkened tunnels after the initial tube bombs to those that lost limbs and have come back to work determined not to let the bad guys win.

These are the people that had a very real reason not to use the London Underground and me in all my dramatic wailing about rights and wrongs of etiquette and behaviour and empty threats of how I'll never use the tube again should be put to shame this week.

So here's to the families of those that perished, and to the heroic survivors for whom sometimes every day is a struggle - I salute you.  The tube will be a sombre place this week.

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