By Louise Jury, Arts and Media Correspondent

The seminar with Ginie Polo Sayles could be the most lucrative afternoon of your life. The American poor girl made good is to bestow the benefit of her experience and tell you How To Marry The Rich.


The seminar with Ginie Polo Sayles could be the most lucrative afternoon of your life. The American poor girl made good is to bestow the benefit of her experience and tell you How To Marry The Rich.

After bagging her own Texan oil millionaire 15 years ago from under the nose of her best friend, Ms Sayles has spent years advising fellow Americans how to do the same. This week she holds her first seminar in London on how to win your wealthy man (or woman).

Anyone can mate with money, she said, as she prepared for her mission to the UK yesterday. "You really can. But it takes a person who is genuinely interested in it. A lot of people think they're serious about it, but they're not."

Grooming is the key to success. "Look at Cinderella. Her fairy godmother gave her this makeover and said to her, 'If you want to crash the party, you have to look as though you belong there.' You don't have to pay as much for the clothes as the people who are there, but you have to look that style. And then you get away with it."

Being in the right place is the next lesson, which makes public relations and journalism good careers for meeting your match. "The financial district is good," she added. "Most really wealthy businessmen feel that [marrying] is no different from making a business deal."

Men who are interested in wealthy women need to decide whether they want to be a husband or a toy-boy for special occasions only.

Ms Sayles spotted the benefits of wealth early. "I wanted to date boys with money when I was in high school because they could afford to take me places that I couldn't afford to go and they could introduce me to experiences I wouldn't otherwise have had. I always refer to it as my educational system."

Yet her first husband, though her boss, was not at all wealthy and her second, a doctor, was only comfortably off.

Only when she met Reed Sayles, whose ancestors founded the Texan town where he was raised, did she strike gold."I was absolutely conscious he had money. But I also liked the way he danced and lots of other things. He didn't mind a bit. He was amused," she said.