* The sample consists of the first forty-five debutantes whose present names and addresses I was able to verify. This means that it is not, in any strict sense, a ‘random’ sample. Those people whose addresses were easiest to obtain were either those whose names were passed on to me by a contemporary – therefore they are more likely to fall within a handful of groups of friends – or those whose present whereabouts was easily traceable through a current Debrett, which means that the sample inclines towards the members of the aristocracy listed in its pages. A truly random sample could not have been selected without full knowledge of the present location and childhood origins of all debs in 1939, and this proved impossible to compile in the limited time available. Those debutantes who were not themselves of noble birth and those who married ‘commoners’ disappear from view as far as the reference books are concerned. They could only be located through a contemporary who had remained in touch for nearly fifty years. It is a tribute to the success of the Season in forging lifelong friendships that so many have in fact done so.