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