A Calamity of Mannerings by Joanna Nadin

‘It is a curse to be born a girl…’

Take a peek into the diary of Panth (never enquire as to her given name), a young woman knocking on the gilded door of adult life and high society. But kicking up one’s heels at the Café de Paris does not come easily to a girl navigating:

1. Poverty (even the genteel kind), thanks to her papa’s sad demise

2. A lack of any experience whatsoever with the opposite sex, of course not counting Freddy Spencer (and he wasn’t that sort of experience, anyhow) 3. Multiple sisters with ideas, a grandmother with opinions and one recalcitrant sheep

Panth knows there is more for her out in the world – it’s 1924, for goodness’ sake – and that could include swoonsome American with excellent teeth, Buck Buchanan. The question is – how in the name of Tatler is she to claim it?