Belle de Jour Reveals Herself

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

A literary mystery finally solved. "Belle de Jour", whose blog and best-selling books were based on her 14-month career as an escort, and inspired the TV series The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, has revealed herself as a 34-year-old research scientist working in Bristol.

 

India Knight reports for the Sunday Times, 15 November:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6917495.ece

Her name is Dr Brooke Magnanti. Her specialist areas are developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology. She has a PhD in informatics, epidemiology and forensic science and is now working at the Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health. She is part of a team researching the effects of exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos on foetuses and infants ...

 

... she’s had enough of being anonymous. There is also an ex-boyfriend with a big mouth lurking in the background; outing herself while she still has a measure of control over how it happens seems the sensible option ...

 

... until we met today, only six people knew Belle’s true identity. Not even her agent knew her real name until, asked for evidence by me, she copied him into an e-mail she sent me. "It was better that way," she says. "He couldn’t ever blurt it out by accident."

 

"When did you tell your parents?" I ask her.

 

"Um, I’m telling my mother some time tomorrow," she says. "I’ve prepped her. I’ve said, ‘There’s something big coming; I’m going to have to have a proper chat with you ...."

 

There are two more books in the pipeline authored by Belle de Jour, "after which I think the public appetite will have died out"...

 

And the blog that kickstarted all this? "The blog will continue for the time being, even though it doesn’t feel authentic to keep on being Belle. But I’ll keep on for a bit. I’d like her to have a happy ending."

 

[Ariane Valmont 332]

Thank you for that link!

 

I've just watched recently The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl and I absolutely loved it.

 

It's great to know who is behind it! There has been so much speculations.

[buggernot 588]

The writer of the article illustrated a prevailing mentality of ignorance that no doubt is common amongst most people:

 

"I was convinced she was a man ? some sad-loser perv, writing titillation for other sad-loser pervs, in the guise of that great male fantasy, the prostitute who enjoys her work."

 

I'm not saying it's a fault, just the reality of not truly understanding an issue with well-formed bias from years of conditioning. So the more Belle du Jours that keep popping up in mainstream media, the better it will keep getting for changing public perception.

 

Great article WIT, thanks for posting...

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

The writer of the article illustrated a prevailing mentality of ignorance that no doubt is common amongst most people:

 

"I was convinced she was a man — some sad-loser perv, writing titillation for other sad-loser pervs, in the guise of that great male fantasy, the prostitute who enjoys her work" ...

 

I do find it interesting that Belle specifically chose India Knight to be the recipient/beneficiary of this coming-out scoop. (For example, Belle did not choose the Telegraph, for whom she had previously written a number of columns). Knight is characterized as one of Belle's "fiercest critics". Buggernot alludes to Knight's concession that she wrote an "uncharitable" review of Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl back when it was published. So choosing Knight now as the vehicle for outing herself could be a bit of: "In Your Face" on Belle's part, perhaps. (Although, for all I know, she could have simply sold her interview to the Sunday Times as the highest bidder, in the time-honoured British journalism tradition.)

 

Excerpt from Knight's original review (Sunday Times, 16 Jan 2005):

"... yawnsome ... There is an interesting first-hand book to be written about prostitution. Sadly, this ain’t it. And the sex is unsexy. That’s if you believe a word of it."