'It never really occurred to her that literary men, if they like women at all, do not want literary women but girls.'The May of Teck Club 'exists for the Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years'.

Nevertheless, and though there is a war on, they find the time between elocution lessons to jostle one another over suitors (some more suitable than others) and a single Schiaparelli gown.

But can a love of literature, fine clothes and amorous young men save these young ladies from the horrors of the real world?'Unsettling and exhilarating' William Boyd, Daily Telegraph 'An enduring genius' Guardian