OCTAVIA WER. ANGIELSKA, JILLY COOPER

As soon as Octavia catches a glimpse of Jeremy in the nightclub, she knows she just has to have him. It doesn't matter that he's just got engaged to an old school friend of hers: good-natured Gussie. His look suggested bed rather than breakfast, and made her weak at the knees...

Rich and stunning, Octavia is used to men falling in love with her at a moment's notice and an invitation to join Gussie and Jeremy for a cozy weekend on a canal barge comes like a gift from the gods. How can she fail to hook Jeremy?

But the other part of the foursome is whizz-kid business tycoon Gareth Llewellyn, a swarthy Welshman with all the tenderness of a scrum-half...definitely not Octavia's type!

And one way and another, he certainly manages to thwart her plans...