Luncheon with Gervais Hagerty | In Polite Company

Join us at the Piedmont Club on Wednesday, September 15, at noon with Charleston author Gervais Hagerty! Hagerty was one of the selected writers for the celebrated memorial collection for Dorothea Benton Frank, Reunion Beach, and we are pleased to welcome her to Spartanburg! For this special luncheon, we will be celebrating the release of her debut novel, In Polite Company. Tickets include a signed copy of the book, a seated luncheon, and a conversation with this delightful author!

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In Polite Company

by Gervais Hagerty

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“This terrific debut lifts the veil on the charming old city of Charleston and a prominent Lowcountry family to deliver an entertaining story about becoming yourself without totally rejecting your past. Plus: debutante balls! I love this novel.”—Lauren Weisberger, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada and When Life Gives You Lululemons 

A captivating debut novel that looks inside the private lives of Charleston aristocracy, where a former debutante learns that sometimes good behavior leads to bad decisions.

Tourists think they see the real Charleston, but Simons Smythe knows there’s more to her hometown than sweet tea and Southern hospitality. Behind the walled gardens, inside the fabled historic homes, live Charleston’s elite. Simons was born into this powerful aristocracy that has quietly ruled the city for centuries.

"Peek behind the veil of Charleston’s cobbled streets, Southern charm and pedigreed society. In Polite Company offers a nuanced look at birth and death, privilege and discrimination at odds between generations. Gervais Hagerty is an author to watch!”—Mary Alice Monroe, New York Times bestselling author 

Simons’s family has a banner year ahead; Her older sister will give birth to her second child, and her younger sister will make her debut—a series of cocktail parties and balls to introduce her to society. And in one year, Simons plans to marry Trip. She hopes that’s enough time to fall back in love.

Simons produces the news at a local TV station, a job that increasingly tests her loyalty to her family and friends. On her days off, Simons surfs the waves of Folly Beach, crabs the salty rivers of Edisto Island, and follows her wayward heart to King Street bars. The one touchstone in this confusing time is her elegant and secretive grandmother, Laudie, who—repeatedly and mysteriously—urges Simons to “be brave.”

In this sparkling novel, Simons unlocks riddles from the past, flirts with a new future, and discovers that some rules are made to be broken.

“Gervais Hagerty’s compelling debut novel allows us a fascinating glimpse into an elite Southern society trying to hold onto age-old traditions and values in a rapidly changing world... This is the kind of highly readable, richly populated, and beautifully written book you will be eager to recommend to others!”—Cassandra King Conroy, award-winning author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy

Gervais Hagerty grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. She earned her B.A. in psychology from Vanderbilt University. After a post-college stint in Southern California, she returned to the east coast, where she worked as a news reporter and producer for both radio and television broadcasts. In 2013, she earned her M.B.A. from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, and soon after became a professor, where she taught Leadership Communications. As the director of Patricia McArver Public Speaking Lab, she coached students, faculty, and staff to become effective speakers. She also advised the college's public speaking club. She is a board member of The Charleston Council for International Visitors and serves on Charleston's Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. She lives in Charleston with her husband and daughters. IN POLITE COMPANY is her first novel.