It is a truth universally acknowledged that the modern world of courtship can at times be compared to a steaming pile of horse excrement!

From first dates to final breaks, awkward dinners to dance-floor disasters, and PDA to MIA, allow Lady Bennet-Down to be your heavily corseted guide as she offers insight and sympathy to some of the most commonly ruinous dilemmas contemporary daters face and spills the tea on the Regency art of courtship.

So, set aside your cynicism, banish those bad-date memories, because the dating game is not over, dear reader. In fact, it has only just begun.