Charm: An Essay

An informative, fun and rather charming essay on the nature and history of one of life’s most desirable assets, Charm, by renowned culture and design critic, Stephen Bayley.

Aiming to wound, a schoolmaster wrote on future design-guru Stephen Bayley’s last ever school report “Charm alone will not get him through”. Bayley took this to mean that an affable, genial, outgoing nature was not enough to ensure survival in a harsh world of statistical performance. But survive and flourish is exactly what Bayley did and now he aims to define Charm by looking at its origins and meanings throughout history and in the modern age.

Reviews

‘Stephen Bayley can charm your pants off – he charmed mine off, then returned them dry-cleaned and pressed; read on at the peril of extreme pleasure …’ Will Self

About the author

Stephen Bayley is a writer, critic and design consultant.