Ten slim and slender companions, from the concert hall to the comedy club

Liana, 167 cm with chestnut hair, spends an unhurried hour at Hatchards and hands you the book she chose, wrapped. She lives in Marylebone. Patricia, 172 cm, walks the Mall Galleries slowly and studies the brushwork. Margo, 166 cm, prefers a viewing week at Christie's on King Street, silent until one picture makes her talk. Violetta roams the floors of Waterstones on Piccadilly until the mood of the night is settled. Vanessa, 173 cm, tries three scents at Floris and makes you decide between them.

Cindy, 168 cm, fair and blue eyed, wants the tall windows at Hide above Green Park and a short walk under the trees afterwards. Samanta, 174 cm, takes a single drink at Brown's Hotel, in its Donovan Bar on Albemarle Street, then supper somewhere with good lamps. She lives in Mayfair and walks there. Karolina, 174 cm, starts with a recital at St James's Church when there is one, then the Rivoli Bar at The Ritz, where she can tell the original details from the good copies.

Stacy, at 176 cm the second tallest in the house and dry as a good martini, likes a front-row seat at The Comedy Store and a late supper to follow. Lucy prefers the dark of Green Park, where the lamps sit low enough for a planet or two to show, and a high window afterwards. She will point out what can be seen tonight and admit cheerfully what London hides.

This page covers every tempo the house offers, from Liana's gentle hour among the shelves to Stacy's seat within reach of the microphone, which makes it a useful place to start if you are writing to Octavia for the first time. Choose the hour you would like the evening to begin. The rest follows from that.

Home districts are spread widely: Chelsea for Cindy and Stacy, Belgravia for Patricia and Violetta, Knightsbridge for Margo, Covent Garden for Karolina, Paddington for Vanessa and Pimlico for Lucy. Every one of them is used to crossing town for an introduction.

Height joins this page to statuesque for six names. Lucy crosses in the other direction, into petite, and four of the ten stand under 170 cm: Lucy, Margo, Liana and Cindy. By colour the ten are mostly brunette, with one fair head, Cindy's, two in raven black and Patricia in auburn. By decade, Stacy and Lucy are in their early twenties, Margo and Violetta in their thirties, and the remaining six in their late twenties.

Patricia and Violetta are both proposed for the overnight engagement, dinner through to morning at £3,000, because each prefers an evening that is never made to hurry. Karolina, Margo and Violetta are regulars on the formal plus one. Every hour is £600; the full ladder is on rates, and Octavia replies through booking.