Auburn and red, three companions drawn to a stage or a screen

Lea wears long auburn waves and is petite at 161 cm. New writing at the Royal Court on Sloane Square is her favourite plan, tickets bought well ahead and a candlelit supper chosen for afterwards. She works at a potter's wheel on Sundays and notices the lamps and fabrics of any room she walks into, your hotel suite included.

Luna has the darkest red of the three and the boldest manner. She likes to start on Kensington Church Street with a blind tasting she usually wins, carries a film camera in her bag and, if the timing works, adds whatever is playing at the Coronet, up the hill in W11. She is independent, quick and happiest with a guest who holds an opinion and defends it.

Patricia is slim and 172 cm, with auburn brown hair and a gentle, romantic manner. Her evening is a classic film at the Electric Cinema on Portobello Road, a glass carried to a velvet armchair, then a dimly lit supper nearby. She paints watercolour skies and loses all sense of time in a bookshop, and she will warn you about the second habit in advance.

The choice usually comes down to temperament rather than shade. Lea suits a guest who likes a plan with room for a detour: the seats will be booked, but a lamp in an antique shop window on Pimlico Road may still delay the walk. Luna suits someone who enjoys a little friendly competition and a direct answer to every question. Patricia is the gentlest of the three, a romantic with a light touch, and the best match for a slow evening that ends in quiet conversation at your hotel.

Lea's plans gather around Sloane Square, Luna's around High Street Kensington and Patricia's around Notting Hill. All three reach any SW7 hotel without difficulty, and a four hour dinner date at £900 comfortably holds a performance, a table and the journey back.

Lea is also filed among the petite companions and Luna among the curvaceous. Patricia hangs with both the statuesque and the slender. In the age wing, Patricia is filed under late twenties, while Lea and Luna are both in their early twenties.

With only three names, a little notice helps, especially when tickets are involved: good seats and popular screenings tend to go before companions' diaries fill. The fee is the collection's standard ladder, from £250 an hour, and an ordinary hotel or residence booking is secured once a quarter of the fee, 25 percent, has arrived by bank transfer.