Pack your tiara, we're sending you to princess summer camp

Summer camps traditionally feature sports, outdoor games and singsongs around the fire. But the latest American import to London is instead promising to teach little girls the "art" of being a princess.

The Princess Prep course teaches good manners, horse riding and how to perform the perfect curtsey. The "elite" course for eight to 11-year old girls also includes lessons in royal history, philanthropy and tips on "phone and iPod etiquette".

Daily etiquette sessions will also include lessons in introductions, making eye contact, table manners and dealing with boredom, awkward moments and coughing fits. The girls will learn how to behave when meeting the Queen and will pay daily visits to palaces.

Author Jerramy Fine said she was inspired to start the course by her lifelong obsession with becoming a princess. The 33-year-old, who grew up in America and now lives in Chiswick, said: "Ever since I was a little girl I've wanted to be a princess and I never grew out of it. I just wanted to create something that I would have liked as a girl."

But psychologist and mother Linda Papadopoulos criticised Princess Prep and warned parents against gender stereotyping. She said: "We need to stop letting our daughters down by insulting them with the idea that they need to be pretty and malleable."

Ms Fine said two of the three week-long courses this summer have sold out and it is proving so popular in America that she is considering organising more.

Fine - whose book Someday My Prince Will Come tells of her quest to escape "hippy parents" and become an English princess - said the appetite for Prince William and Kate Middleton in the US is "voracious".

She added: "We don't have a royal family so we have to live vicariously through Britain. I don't think the British people understand how magical it is. The Windsors are a living, breathing royal family, for us that's enchanting. We only have Disney."