In Georgian Britain a man was allowed to beat his wife with any stick thinner than his thumb. Historian Amanda Vickery explores how women got their own way under "the rule of thumb". There was much more to feminine wiles than lowering a neckline or tightening a corset. It was far better to engage in pleading, over-compliance and martyrdom - to keep the husband guessing. "Never," wrote an 18th-century father to his daughter, "never tell him that you love him". Among the items featured are the handbook to married life, Jane Collier's Art of Ingeniously Tormenting, tales of the dangers of a coach ride with a gentleman, as well as the pernicious trade in bigamous marriages which more creative women used to escape their debts.