Animating Maria

The fifth title in M.C. Beaton's Regency Romance series, School for Manners.

'If you have a Wild, Unruly, or Undisciplined Daughter, two Ladies of Genteel Birth offer to Bring Out said Daughter and Refine what may have seemed Unrefinable. We can make the Best of the Worst‘.

When Amy and Effie Tribble, two charming but impoverished spinster sisters, lose out on an inheritance, they place this advertisement in The Morning Post and hire themselves out as professional chaperones. Vowing to prepare even the most difficult misses for marriage, the Tribble sisters will spend a London season on each client, educating them in their School for Manners.

Maria Kendall is seemingly a dream client - beautiful, impeccably mannered, effortlessly graceful and extremely well dowered. In short, she doesn't seem to need the Tribbles' help at all. But then the sisters meet her parents and realise that they do have a problem on their hands - not with the perfect Maria, but with her overweening, gauche and socially over-ambitious parents!

About the Author

M. C. Beaton is the author of the hugely successful Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth series, both published by Constable & Robinson. She left a full time career in journalism to turn to writing, and now lives in a village in the Cotswolds very much like Agatha's beloved Carsely.