In The Art of Conversation, Catherine Blyth eloquently points out the sorry state of disrepair that conversation has fallen into—and then she gives us the tools to rebuild. Her prose embodies the conversational values she promotes: It’s smart, succinct, self-deprecating, and light on its feet. The Art of Conversation isn’t about etiquette, elocution, or knowing how to hold your teacup with your little finger crooked just so. It’s about something simple and profound: connecting. And the key is listening.

Conversation has been the engine of intelligence since Homo became sapiens… But as schoolchildren and grammar-mangling academics prove, this tradition means diddlysquat unless each of us incorporates conversation into our personal evolution.

British journalist Catherine Blyth was once described as “the person you hope you’ll find at the next cocktail party—or the person you’d like to be.” The next best thing is a close encounter with Blyth on the printed page. Adopting a chatty, conversational manner to write about conversation, Blyth mixes personal anecdotes into a salmagundi of selected quotes from anthropology, history, literature, philosophy and pop culture to analyze and give advice on the dynamics of good conversation, not to mention the perfect riposte for every situation. She examines everything from small talk to pillow talk, from riotous raconteurs to crashing bores, from flattery to false smiles. Blyth probes layers of language, humour as social engineering, baiting, lies, flirting, evasions and shoptalk.

Witty, eloquent and insightful, Blyth’s book is a delightful encouragement to rediscover conversation as the best communication technology—it’s been in research and development for thousands of years! It’s a wide-ranging look at the pleasures of great conversation, including strategies for how to bring it about.