Long before designer shoes, apple martinis and speed-dating, Miss Philomena Wellesley-Clegg tackles the challenge of finding the perfect accessory and the perfect husband … and finds some rules are made to be broken.

Read an excerpt and extra, and a little
something for Little Black Dress readers!

The Story Behind The Story

I started writing The Rules as a joke and as entertainment for myself. I originally based it on Bridget Jones’s Diary but couldn’t find the Regency equivalents of the cigarette, calories, and alcohol intake. After a time I began to get a little bored with Philomena’s breathless idiocy, and changed to Inigo’s voice.

I still think it’s one of the sexiest things I’ve written and I’m always highly amused if it’s described as a “sweet” book

We had a terrible time trying to find a suitable title.  At first we had a lot of variations on The Diary: Being the Intimate Reflections of Miss Philomena Wellesley-Clegg with the Occasional Scribbles of Mr. Inigo Linsley before the HarperCollins design department went into a tailspin over a 19-word title. My agent suggested Running with Rakes and for a time it looked like One Last Scandalous Exchange was going to be the title. Quite early on I’d suggested Gentility Rules, thinking of it in terms of something the Bennett sisters might spray paint onto a wall, and HarperCollins came up with The Rules of Gentility. We were all happy!

Here are some of my favorite discards:

Mr. Darcy’s Trousers: Not Another Austen Knock-Off (I thought this one said it all but my editor pointed out that Mr. Darcy does not make an appearance in the book).

The Lady Vanquishes

Truths Universally Acknowledged

Trimmed with Riband

The Gallery of Fashion

The Bonnet Strategem

A Scandalous Exchange

Good Works & Fine Feathers

Trading With the Ton

Diary of a Regency Diva

Bond Street Diaries

These two come from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen:

Only A Novel

The Happiest Delineation

“Only a novel”… in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language.

These are from Herrick’s rather sexy poem Delight in Disorder:

A Sweet Disorder

Delight in Disorder

A Tempestuous Petticoat

A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness…
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat…

Then there’s Byron, from the opening of Don Juan:

I  Want a Hero

I want a hero: an uncommon want,
When every year and month sends forth a new one,
Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,
The age discovers he is not the true one…