Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Belle de Jour (Anonymous), 2007
Grand Central Publishing
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780446540827
Summary
Belle couldn't find a job after University. Her impressive degree was not paying her rent or buying her food. But after a fantastic threesome with a very rich couple who gave her a ton of money, Belle realized that she could earn more than anyone she knew—by becoming a call girl. The rest is history.
Belle became a 20-something London working girl—and had the audacity to write about it—anonymously. The shockingly candid and explicit diary she put on the Internet became a London sensation. She shares her entire journey inside the world of high-priced escorts, including fascinating and explicit insights about her job and her clients, her various boyfriends, and a taboo lifestyle that has to be read to be believed.
The witty observations, shocking revelations, and hilarious scenarios deliver like the very best fiction and make for a titillating reading experience unlike any other. The book has been turned into a Showtime series. (From the publisher.)
The book was adapted to a British TV series, which aired from 2007-2011.
Author Bio
• Aka—Belle de Jour
• Birth—November 5, 1975
• Raised—Florida, USa
• Education—B.S.,Florida State University; M.A.,
and Ph.D., Uiversity of Sheffield (UK)
• Currently—lives in the UK
Brooke Magnanti is a research scientist, blogger, and writer, who, until her identity was revealed in November 2009, was known by the pen name Belle de Jour.
While completing her doctoral studies, between 2003 and 2004, Magnanti supplemented her income by working as a London call girl. Her diary, published as the anonymous blog "Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call Girl" became increasingly popular, as speculation surrounded the identity of Belle de Jour, and whether the diary was real.
Remaining anonymous, Magnanti went on to have her experiences published as The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl in 2005 and The Further Adventures of a London Call Girl in 2006. Her first two books were UK top 10 best-sellers in the nonfiction hardback and nonfiction paperback lists. In 2007, Belle's blogs and books were adapted into a television programme, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, starring Billie Piper as Belle, with the real name Hannah Baxter. In November 2009, reportedly fearing her real identity was about to come out, Magnanti revealed her real name and occupation as a child health scientist. (From Wikipedia...read more on Wikipedia under Belle de Jour.)
Book Reviews
A lurid, witty, sad, moving and...honest version of her life as a call girl...The author is clearly well-educated, and peppers her writings with erudite literary allusions...Whoever Belle is, she is obviously witty and clever, but also touched by melancholy. An intriguing, often disturbing work.
Lucy Cavendish - Evening Standard
She lists like Hornby. She talks dirty like Amis. She has the misanthropy of Larkin and examines the finer points of sexual technique as she is adjusting the torque on a beloved but temperamental old E-type...It's hard to believe that this clever and candid new voice has no more to say. Whoever the author is, she should give up the day job. Only then will we find out what the real Belle de Jour is made of.
Katy Guest - Indepentent
In between appointments, Belle slots in real dates and holidays, and treats us to excepts from her 'A-Z Of London Sex Work'— tips on how to chat to clients ('Lie your head off. Think of it as proving ground for a future political career'), where to buy your knickers and how to smuggle whips into hotels."
Hephizibah Anderson - Daily Mail
A talent for comedy means it's not really porn, and it's barely erotica—more like one long open-mic stand-up routine about a working girl's lige and the people she meets...a guaranteed hit.
Focus
Belle dispels the stereotypes of street hookers with her painfully candid viewpoint. She is intelligent, witty, sharp as a tack, and possessor of a life filled with friends…and even a "straitlaced as a whalebone corset" boyfriend. The anonymous author provides the perfect counterbalance to the raw sexual content with a matter-of-fact, humorous voice with a healthy dose of irony. And the scenarios with clients are hilarious when taken out of context. Her journal of this lifestyle is as entertaining as it is enlightening, reading more like fiction than an autobiography. It requires an open mind and nonjudgmental attitude, but it’s well worth the time.
Bookfetish. org
Told with verve, and swinging both ways, this is a little like an owner’s manual to sexual positions, variations and perversions, in fact there seems to be little this woman hasn’t experienced at one time or another. Her account about lit candles getting set into assorted orifices nearly put this reviewer off, yet the candor and humor help keep this diary from sinking into the quagmire as Belle recounts light boyfriends and a true flame. Explicit to a fault, this fun, quick read is sure to have you laughing out loud as Belle reveals the quirks and fantasies of her varied clientele.
Bookbrothel.com
Apart from merely being an entertaining read, the book does come up with a few enlightening insights — that a change of lingerie, spare stockings, makeup kit, phone, diary and the occasional whip will never fit into a small handbag; that not all men who avail of her services are chauvinistic, desperate sleazeballs; and that not all call girls are trashy, uncultured women who wouldn't know how to write a book if their lives depended on it.
Samanth.blogspot.com
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Secret Diary of a Call Girl:
1. What was your attitude toward prostitution before reading this book? Did your attitude change after having read it? How so or how not so? What surprised you about the book?
2. Is Belle De Jour making a pitch on behalf of the call-girl industry? Or is she simply presenting her life as it is? What is her own attitude toward "the industry"? Is there a legal, moral or societal difference between high-paid call girls and street prostitutes?
3. How did you find Belle's candor and matter-of-fact tone?
4. Many readers and reviewers find the book humorous. Do you? Who is the butt (oh, that's rich...) of the jokes?
5. Talk about the male clients and what they're looking for?
6. Belle says in her opening chapter
In a world of twelve-year-olds in sexy boots and grannies in sparkly minidresses, the surest way to tell the prostitute walking into a hotel at Heathrow is to look for the lady in the designer suit
7. Is it possible for society to be judgmental about selling sex, when we are bombarded by sex to sell products. Think about the use of heightened sexuality—in the fashion industry, advertisements, popular music, TV shows and film?
8. Did you have fun reading the book?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or offf, with attribution. Thanks.)
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