The Principal Girl

London, 1912. Philip Shelmerdine, young heir to a barony, has made a catastrophic misstep: he wrote a letter defending a dog's right to enter a public park. The ton is appalled. Suddenly, London's most eligible bachelor finds himself utterly unfashionable, shunned by the very society that once courted him. Into his wounded pride steps Mary Caspar, the incandescent actress playing Cinderella in a West End pantomime. She is brilliant, ambitious, and utterly outside his world. As their connection deepens across the footlights and drawing rooms, Snaith poses a delicious question: what happens when the barriers between classes prove more stubborn than love itself? Sharp, warm, and piercing in its observations about Edwardian England's rigid hierarchies, this is a comedy of manners that understands the tragedy lurking beneath the wit.