Historian Hannah Greig introduces the Beau Monde of Georgian England, a world of gossip, intrigue and scandal where conspicuous consumption and the right address, dinner guests, clothes, jewels and seat at the opera marked your status in society and were a passport to power. Greig uncovers the characters striving for membership of the Beau Monde, those gaining entry and those losing it. They include the newly ennobled peer learning the ropes, the imposter seeking entry by fakery, and the exile banned for sexual indiscretion.

Greig is a lecturer in 18th-century British history at the University of York. She also works as a historical adviser for film, television and theatre.