KATE REARDON

A good education gives you confidence to stick up your hand for anything - whether it is the job you want, or the bloke. And the more you stick up your hand, the better your chances are that you will get what you want.

Personal shoppers in big department stores are seriously under-used.

A good school teaches you resilience - that ability to bounce back.

I have a beautiful Hellenistic gold and garnet ring - it's more than 2,200 years old, but it looks very modern.

The Queen's wedding dress in 1947, there was some embroidery on the train which was definitely there to illustrate new dawn/post-war optimism, that sort of thing.

Luck is going to play a huge part in your life.

It doesn't matter how many A-levels you have, what kind of a degree you have, if you have good manners, people will like you.

Every time I put on high heels, I think: 'Well, I'll fall over today.' Almost always, I don't. Almost. But all high-heel-wearing women live in constant peril.

Public humiliation comes to us all, and never so surely as when we're just a little bit pleased with ourselves and feel, just for once, that everything is going our way.

There's a difference between being posh and being rich.

The way you personally communicate is 90 per cent of how you will be evaluated by any future employer.

My favourite thing in my wardrobe is my jewelry.

It's stupid to say that there's any comfort to be had in 'knowing your place,' but there is a sense of reassuring escapism to something like 'Downton Abbey.' There's a perceived romance and elegance that is wonderful to lose yourself in.

Each dress symbolizes the age that it's appropriate for.

When did you last have fun being dignified?

When you first hear the name 'Max Irons,' you'd be forgiven for assuming that Marvel comics has come up with a new superhero.

By doing, you become employable. It doesn't matter what the job is; by working, you learn new things, meet new people and are exposed to new ideas.

In falling over in heels while trying to look attractive, you don't just hurt your body, you bear the humiliation of injuring your very soul. Physical pain? Whatever, bring it on. But the humiliation? Oh, you have seen to the very weakest part of me.

The trouble with glossy magazines is that they tend to be stuffed with articles about handbag designers - the sort of women who, with their perfectly styled lives, immaculate houses, and adoring partners, make you want to become a hermit.

Anything looks good if you've got the body of a Victoria's Secret model and the porelessly smooth skin-tone of a piece of glass.

The Mark Birley fan club, of which epic American socialite Nan Kempner says she's the oldest living member, follows him doggedly.

Posh is a way of living that can often be quite miserly and not about money.

The genius of Kate Middleton is that she hasn't gone too far. She's still dressing in a way that people can relate to.

The modern world is a meritocracy where you earn your own luck, old school ties count for nothing, and inherited privilege can even lose a guy a clear parliamentary majority.

There's no snobbery or resentment from serious polo people towards those who just come for the party.