It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman with a name like Prudence Higginbottom must be in need of a good shagging.
Prudence Higginbottomβs youth was marred by the cruel taunts she endured over her unfortunate name, but at the age of twenty-six she has managed to rise above it all to become the part-owner of a cafΓ© and catering business with her parents and three sisters in the small town of Merryton. When the Higginbottom family are hired to cater the opening function for a new business that has just relocated from London, Prue is excited as everyone else, especially when she discovers that the two company directors, Charles Bradley and William Darling, are handsome and single.
Her excitement, however, is short-lived. The first time she encounters William Darling at the companyβs opening party he mocks her name and insults her appearance. She then overhears a conversation in which he expresses some very unsavoury opinions about immigration. It becomes her mission to expose him for the prejudiced, narrow-minded man that he is and prevent him from fermenting racial intolerance in her town.
Things become complicated when Prue discovers that she is not immune from prejudice herself, and William Darling behaves in ways that seem completely out of character for him. Through a series of misunderstandings and embarrassing drunken outbursts Prue and William finally get to know one another and realise that first impressions can be very misleading indeed.
Prude & Prejudice is a novella length romantic comedy (16,200 words).