The Little Lady Agency

Betsy Cooper Phillimore has the unusual distinction of being (a) found on the steps of a finishing school and (b) being named after the marmalade box she was left in. She also has a degree in Mathematics from St Andrews University, strong shoe-selling skills and, thanks to her adoptive mother, Lady Frances Phillimore, the sort of do-it-all modern manners that you’d pay good money to learn.

Which is just as well, since she’s the principal of the Finishing Touches School of Common Sense, where you can learn how to pick the right man, the right black skirt and the right eyebrow shape, all within shouting distance of a Gimlet at the Ritz.

Write to her with your etiquette dilemmas at betsy@thelittleladyagency.co.uk, and read all about her journey to find her real parents - and why the marmalade box - in The Finishing Touches, published by Pocket Books on June 9th 2009.