Swearing and shouting are underrated, says Giles Coren. Four-letter words can be immensely satisfying and extraordinarily effective
When I was ever so small and sweet, romper-suited and frilly-booted and really quite an angel to look at, I must have had a gob on me like an angry plasterer, because the only piece of advice I can
remember my mother ever giving me is: ‘If you’ve got nothing nice to say, Giles, then keep your mouth shut.’
This was most often said at table, I think, when I was passing comment on the ickiness of the boil-in-the-bag cod mornay or the pooey colour of the butterscotch Angel Delight, perhaps on the state
of my baby sister’s table manners, or my father’s, or the smell of the Portuguese au pair.
