Meet the dazzling women of Paris: from Colette to Nancy Mitford, Marie Antoinette to Coco Chanel, Napoleon's Josephine to Edith Wharton. Rule breakers and style setters, these women were utterly diverse, yet they shared one common passion -- Paris, the world's headquarters of femininity.

At a turning point in her life, Lucinda Holdforth journeys to Paris and takes a very personal tour through the lives, loves, and losses of its celebrated women. She evokes the incarnations of the city from Louis XIV through the French Revolution, two world wars, and the Paris of the new millennium. As she walks in their footsteps, Lucinda draws inspiration from the fascinating women who created and nurtured the world's most civilized city. This enjoyable companion will seduce, delight, and inspire every woman in search of her own true pleasures.

Lucinda Holdforth is a speechwriter. She has previously worked as a television researcher, speechwriter to the former Australian Deputy Prime Minister, and communications specialist. She has had articles and columns published in Australian newspapers and magazines. True Pleasures: A Memoir of Women in Paris is her first book. She lives in Sydney, Australia.

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