When it comes to preppie style, attitude and culture, New Yorker Lisa Birnbach wrote the bible.

Ms Birnbach wrote 'True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World' with Chip Kidd. The book is an update to another book she wrote several years ago, 'The Official Preppie Handbook'.

She will be hosting the Ultimate Preppy Weekend, an event at Tucker's Point Club which begins tomorrow.

She be signing copies of her book, and hosting a fashion show of Lilly Pulitzer holiday and resort collections.

“The first book I ever wrote was the 'Official Preppy Handbook',” Ms Birnbach told

The Royal Gazette. “I wrote it without big hopes or intent. I thought maybe the 7,000 people who had been through the American prep school education system would be mildly interested.

“To my enormous surprise the appeal was much wider than that.”

It turned out that there were a lot of wannabe preppies in the world many people saw the book as offering tips for entry into a club they wanted to join. Published in 1980, the book became a phenomenon and is still widely read today.

One Amazon.com reviewer stated in 2004: “This book was a spot-on parody when it came out in 1980, but also a quite accurate and even useful 'field guide' to the North American prepster.

“Almost 25 years later, it still holds up as humor, and also as a great guide to the prep look and lifestyle.”

So what has changed to warrant a second book, 'True Prep'? The author says

everything.

“Things change all the time, although preppies don't change,” said Ms Birnbach. “People were asking me when was I going to do a new book. I just kept saying I was not going to do another book.

“No one wants to be compared to something so successful and have the potential for failure or a negative comparison. So I wasn't going to do it, wasn't going to do it.

“Then I met the man who would turn into the art director, Chip Kidd. He explained that he and a lot of people were very still talking about this book that was 29 years old and 15 years out of print.”

She was very surprised when she Googled her own book and found that it had taken on a life of its own.

She was astonished that people were still interested in it. There were many posts on websites asking when it would be updated.

“Outside of prepdom, everything had changed,” she said. “There was the internet. People were having children out of wedlock. Gay people were getting married.

“Polar fleece was invented and now preppies were wearing recycled Evian bottles as outerwear. More things had happened.

“Many ancient and fabulously prestigious prep schools had become co-ed. Ralph Lauren became a mega brand around the world.

“(Designer clothing store) Tory Burch was opened; J Crew was started. We had a black preppie president elected. And cell phones, bad behaviour and divorce had become so popular.”

In the opening pages of 'True Prep', she wrote, “Despite changes and crisis and the maid quitting, the middle class disappearing, your running out of Vodka and your NetJet account being yanked, and the internet, it's still nice to be prep.”

The new book includes information on such topics as 'scandals: Poor Mrs. Astor', 'When Mummy's plastic surgery goes terribly wrong' and 'Rehab and the slammer: the new prep schools'.

“It also includes new preppy etiquette rules like

no texting at the table.

This will be Ms Birnbach's first trip to the Island.

“I will be doing every single thing while in Bermuda it seems, such as moderating a fashion show, cocktail hour, and book signing.

“I think I am going to be drinking a lot of rum I think that is my obligation. I want to see Bermuda. I am thrilled.”

She grew up in Manhattan which she said has a very powerful strain of prep.

“It is not as isolated or as enclosed as it is in certain suburbs. There is more street life, and a lot more mixing it up.

“There is a lot more democracy on the streets of Manhattan then other places that are more restrictive. I went to private school from nursery school to college. I went to dancing school when it was time for that.'

“Ballet when it was time for that. I curtsied at the girl's school I attended. I learned from my mother how to write a thank you note. I learned how to write a permission note.”

Her most precious possession as a teenager was a note from her mother saying: My daughter, Lisa, has my permission to use my credit card. She could use it in any store where her mother regularly shopped.

“Life is different today,” Ms Birnbach said. “My mother didn't work. I am a working mother.

“As a mother, at dinner time in my house I felt terrible, because it wasn't like it was when I was growing up. When my son started nursery school, I said to the head of the school 'we don't have a dinner time like the one I had growing up. Is that okay? Am I damaging my children?'

“She said, 'nobody does anymore'. When I was growing up we had a formal dinner time at home. My brothers and I weren't allowed to talk until my parents were finished eating. It wasn't about us.

“It was about them. We weren't raised the way children are raised nowadays. There was no hovering. We were expected to do our homework on our own. Today, children are the focus of their parents.”

She said the reaction to the book has been pretty big so far. When she meets her fans they often ask, 'what took you so long'? But she said some old-school preppies were a little unhappy that preppydom has grown so inclusive. Ms Birnbach herself is Jewish.

“From the 20th century on there have always been prep schools admitting Jews, Catholics, Irish, blacks, Asians and every other variation,” said Ms Birnbach. “If you look at any single prep school, such as Choate, St. Pauls or Andover, you will see a varied, heterogeneous mix of kids. That is who the schools are now overtly appealing to. They are not looking for a WASP constituency. That is too old-fashioned. So, consequently, if these are the schools that are educating and rearing the new preppie population, hallelujah.”

Ms Birnbach explained that being preppie is not necessarily about political ideology. Preppies tend to be conservative dressers, but are not necessarily ideologically conservative. “I don't think it suggests strongly Democrat or Republican,” she said. “I will tell you in my own opinion President George W. Bush is preppier than President Barack Obama, but that is not because he is white.

“George Bush is preppier because he could not have gotten into any of the schools he attended by his own brain power. Barack Obama got in under his own steam and his academic achievements.

“Caring that much about academics is a teensy bit not preppie. I had a classmate from my private school who got into Harvard who totally deserved to get in because he was a fabulous student. “He always pretended that he didn't get in because of his grades. He tells people that he got in because of his family. It is so silly.”

Ms Birnbach is also the author of several other books including '1,003 Great Things About America' and '1,003 Great Things About Being A Woman'.

She will be signing her book at Rigali Boutique at Tucker's Point tomorrow between 4pm and 8pm, and Saturday between 2pm and 4pm. There will also be a trunk show and informal modelling at the hotel's Rigali Boutique. Cocktails at the event will feature a signature drink, 'Pink n' Preppy'. There will be gifts with purchase, giveaways and spa specials starting tomorrow through Sunday.

At 3pm on Saturday there will be a Lilly Pulitzer fashion show. On Sunday an afternoon tea with the author is on offer for $35 per person. Telephone 298-4076 for more information.