Sorry...: The Hardest Word and How to Use It

Sorry...: The Hardest Word and How to Use It \n\n \n\nDescription\n\n'Just say you are sorry.' It has become one of the drumbeats of the age. Fresh apologies are demanded every week: from broadcasters, politicians, errant spouses, disgraced bankers, myopic referees. Sometimes an apology is forthcoming, and honour is satisfied. But, for many people, the S-word proves a bridge too far: they shrink from using it even when common sense tells them that they should.\n\n \n\nHow have we got ourselves into such a tangle over a simple two-syllable word? The English used to be world-champion apologisers: a nature of inveterate sorry-sayers. Now we hardly know if we are coming or going.\n\n \n\nWritten by serial apologiser Max Davidson, a man who believes in saying he is sorry, then waiting to be told what he is sorry for. Sorry! examines the origins and history of the word 'sorry'; dissects some of the reasons that apologies are seen as a sign of moral weakness; explor.