Beauty or Brains

When the Marquis of Sherwood declines her invitation to a Society occasion with the scathing comment that he has no wish to spend his time with d?butantes, whom he believes are ?half-witted, gauche, stupid and not well-educated?, Lady Katherine Wick is incensed. Even more so when she discovers that he apparently prefers the company of the Gaiety Girls, the femmes fatales of the theatrical set.
So she resolves to teach him a lesson by enlisting dear friend Lavina Vernon and her most beautiful, talented and witty friends to pose as Gaiety Girls at an unchaperoned party at the Marquis? country mansion ? there to prove that Society girls are intelligent as well as glamorous. Kind, demure country parson?s daughter Lavina is uncomfortable with this deceit ? all the more so as she comes to realise that her heart belongs utterly to the Marquis. The question, once the pretence has been exposed, is whether he will treasure it... Or break it.

Barbara Cartland was the world's most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages.
As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery.
She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation.
Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world.
She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven.
Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author.
Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed.
Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone's life.