Octavia: 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...