When you are 15 years old and destitute, too unskilled to work and too young to claim unemployment benefit, your body is all you have left to sell.'THE BEST WORK BY ANYONE ON PROSTUTION EVER.' Catherine A. MacKinnonRachel Moran came from a troubled family background. Taken into state care at 14, she became homeless and got involved in prostitution aged 15, ending up isolated, drug-addicted, outside of society.Rachel's experience was one of violence, loneliness, and relentless exploitation and abuse. Her story reveals the emotional cost of selling your body night after night in order to survive – loss of innocence, loss of self-worth and loss of connection to mainstream society, which makes it all the more difficult to escape the world of prostitution.Paid For reveals the raw reality behind prevailing myths about sex work: that working indoors is safer; that some forms of sex work are 'classier' than others; that selling sex can be empowering; that a 'happy hooker' exists. The biggest lie of all, Rachel says, is that women can choose to be in prostitution.At the age of 22 she managed, with remarkable strength, to liberate herself from the cycle of drug abuse and prostitution. She went to university, gained a degree and forged a new life, but she always promised that one day she would complete this book. Paid For is her story, in her own words and in her own name.'Striking, saturated with sad and angry detail and raw, effective analogy.' The New York Times 'This is surely the best, most personal, profound, eye-opening book ever written about prostitution – irrefutable proof of why it should NEVER be legalized.' Jane Fonda'Rachel Moran's Paid For should be required reading in courses on human rights, in police training and law schools, and in sex education courses that separate welcome sex from body invasion.' Gloria Steinem Read more

An inspirational, frequently disturbing memoir of a troubled youth describes how the author fell victim to the ills of the child welfare system, detailing her experiences with sexual abuse, neglect, drug and alcohol addiction, prostitution, and gang banging, as well as her long and difficult struggle to rebuild her life. 50,000 first printing. Read more

Great book, ex-library with usual marks, a small piece of page torn off on page 3 & a plastic cover, fast dispatch, UK SELLER Read more

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERHotel K - Bali's most notorious jail - is Hell in Paradise.Welcome to Hotel Kerobokan, or Hotel K, Bali's most notorious jail. Its walls touch paradise; sparkling oceans, surf beaches and palm trees on one side, while on the other it's a dark, bizarre and truly frightening underworld of sex, drugs, violence and squalor. Hotel K's filthy and disease ridden cells have been home to the infamous and the tragic: a Balinese King, Gordon Ramsay's brother, Muslim terror bombers, beautiful women tourists and surfers from across the globe. Petty thieves share cells with killers, rapists, and gangsters. Hardened drug traffickers sleep alongside unlucky tourists, who've seen their holiday turn from paradise to hell over one ecstasy pill. Hotel K is the shocking inside story of the jail and its inmates, revealing the wild 'sex nights' organised by corrupt guards for the prisoners who have cash to pay, the jail's ecstasy factory, the killings made to look like suicides, the days out at the beach, the escapes and the corruption that means anything is for sale - including a fully catered Italian jail wedding, or a luxury cell upgrade with a Bose sound system. The truth about the dark heart of Bali explodes off the page. Read more

She thought she'd escaped her past . . .Susan is a London slum child. Constricted by the rigid rules of the East End orphanage she is brought up in, she escapes to dazzling streets of Soho where she is adopted by a group of prostitutes. Soon enough, she too is earning her living 'on the game'.When Billy 'Apples' Rafferty, a Cockney villain with a heart of gold, becomes her protector, Sue swears to give up her racy life. But when Billy is sent to prison, she soon breaks her promise and her earthy beauty makes her one of Soho's most popular hostesses.When a lucky encounter secures Susan a respectable job as a manageress of a small hotel in Devon, things finally seem to be going her way. But then her past catches up with her . . .****************What readers are saying about SUSAN'This book has everything . . . Thank you, Lena Kennedy, for a great read' - 5 STARS'I could not put it down, it was such a good read!' - 5 STARS'Great as always' - 5 STARS'Lena Kennedy at her best' - 5 STARS'Loved it from start to finish' - 5 STARS Read more

Armed Candy is the true story of one woman's struggle for survival on Britain's meanest streets. Kay has spent her whole life trying to escape. Sexually abused by her grandmother, she pleaded to return to her mother's care. But instead of finding a safe haven, Kay entered a world of drug abuse, swinging and dabbling in the occult. Although still a small child, she was soon buying drugs for her mother and being moved out of her bed as orgies ensued in her home. When she tried to escape, she ended up in a violent marriage, from which she fled in fear of her life. Turning to her mother for help, she was tricked into prostitution, her own mother acting much like a pimp. Kay became a high-class call girl, but then, through a chance meeting, she got involved with the most dangerous criminal gang in Glasgow. Women associated with such gangs are often seen as decorative arm candy, but Kay was admitted to the inner core, where she became involved in making decisions of life and death. She fell in love with the gang's equaliser, a young man feared throughout the country, and together they formed a formidable partnership. But they were too successful, and when they appeared to threaten some powerful interests they had to be taken out. The day that Kay's lover was gunned down in broad daylight saw the beginning of a reign of death in the city, as the organised crime world became paranoid and turned in on itself. For Kay, it was the beginning of her way out. Read more

This edition does not include illustrations.‘Irresistible…history at its most human. Elegant and addictively readable.’ William DalrympleDuring the course of the 18th- and 19th-century a small group of women rose from impoverished obscurity to positions of great power, independence and wealth. In doing so they took control of their lives – and those of other people – and made the world do their will.Men ruined themselves in desperate attempts to gain and retain a courtesan's favours, but she was always courted for far more than sex. In an age in which women were generally not well educated she was often unusually literate and literary, courted for her conversation as well as her physical company. Courtesans were extremely accomplished, and exerted a powerful influence as leaders of fashion and society. They were not received at Court, but inhabited their own parallel world – the demi-monde – complete with its own hierarchies, etiquette and protocol. They were queens of fashion, linguists, musicians, accomplished at political intrigue and, of course, possessors of great erotic gifts. Even to be seen in public with one of the great courtesans was a much-envied achievement.In ‘Courtesans’ Katie Hickman, author of the bestselling ‘Daughters of Britannia’, focuses on the exceptional stories of five outstanding women. Sophia Baddeley, Elizabeth Armistead, Harriette Wilson, Cora Pearl and Catherine Walters may have had very different personalities and talents, but their lives exemplify the dazzling existence of the courtesan. Read more

Fourteen-year-old Adrianna arrives on Casey’s doorstep with no possessions, no English, and no explanation. It will be a few weeks before Casey starts getting the shocking answers to her questions….Brought to Casey as a short-term emergency placement, fourteen-year-old Adrianna arrives with nothing but her gratitude. Having ‘turned herself in’ to a social services office some hundred miles away, she has no possessions, no English and, apparently, no history – not that she’s willing to share, anyway. She is a beautiful young Polish girl, with the bearing of a ballerina, but is terrified, malnourished and unwell. And, having slept rough for some time (the little they do know about her) she spends much of her first days with Watsons asleep in bed.Growing concerned about Adrianna’s wellbeing, and her persistent high temperature, Casey decides to call in the GP. But, to her surprise, Adrianna becomes almost hysterical about being examined and, given her refusal to talk – even via the interpreter they’ve brought in for her – Casey’s fostering antennae begin twitching. Where has she come from? And why is she so terrified to be touched? What has happened to make her so ill and scared?It will be a few weeks before Casey starts getting answers to these questions. Shocking answers; ones that throw up a whole host of new questions and the beginnings of a journey to find justice for Adrianna, and, more importantly, a future, and a home…Casey Watson's book 'Little Girl Lost' was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 2024-03-25. Read more

Belle de Jour is the nom de plume of a high-class call girl working in London.This is her story.From debating the literary merits of the works of Martin Amis with naked clients, entering a hotel with two whips strapped to the lining of her coat, and juggling her love-life with her professional one, Belle's no-holds-barred account of her experiences as a prostitute is frank, funny and completely compelling. Since the summer of 2003, Belle's award-winning website has charted her day-to-day adventures on and off the field. In it, she has confessed her triumphs and disasters in the world of dating, introduced readers to her friends N and 'the four As' and chronicled the ins and outs of her working life. Now she elaborates on those diary entries, revealing how she became a working girl, what it feels like to do it for money - and why she can recommend it - and where to buy the best knickers for the job.Sometimes shocking, often hilarious, always thought-provoking, the 'Intimate Adventures' is the story of a 21st-century Moll Flanders, giving us an illuminating glimpse behind the scenes of the high-class sex-trade, and an insight into the secret life of an extraordinary, ordinary woman. Read more

Whoever thinks they cannot be bought has just never gotten the right offer.After a failed marriage, single mother Lily moves to London, seeking to improve her life. Through her experiences with the men she meets on dating agencies, she is introduced to an intoxicating world of extreme and kinky sex, ultimately leading her into a life of an escort.Lily’s unflinching account of her struggles with gangs, violence and tragedy sees her rise to independence via the seedy streets of South London, to the secret dungeons and sex parties that hide behind the glamourous facade of Mayfair’s mansions.In this deep and sincere memoire, she asks: why she should be condemned for selling sex in a society where everything else is for sale?Sex for money is an explicit, funny and honest account of what it takes to be a London escort and how sometimes, the most dangerous thing a girl can do is to fall in love. Read more

A luscious, enthralling and colourful novel of India in the 1940s. 'Beautifully written, you can smell the spices, feel the heat, and your heart will break, you will laugh at some of the things Mam says, and cry at others, you will want a sequel' LovereadingShortlisted for the HWA Goldsboro Debut CrownEden Gardens, Calcutta, the 1940s. In a ramshackle house, streets away from the grand colonial mansions of the British, live Maisy, her Mam and their ayah, Pushpa. Whiskey-fuelled and poverty-stricken, Mam entertains officers in the night - a disgrace to British India. All hopes are on beautiful Maisy to restore their good fortune.But Maisy's more at home in the city's forbidden alleyways, eating bazaar food and speaking Bengali with Pushpa, than dancing in glittering ballrooms with potential husbands.Then one day Maisy's tutor falls ill. His son stands in. Poetic, handsome and ambitious for an independent India, Sunil Banerjee promises Maisy the world.So begins a love affair that will cast her future, for better and for worse. Just as the Second World War strikes and the empire begins to crumble... Read more

The most comprehensive personal essay collection by sex workers available, demanding change in a world where bodies, sex, and difference are increasingly policed and politicised. This collection of narrative essays by sex workers presents a crystal-clear rejoinder: there's never been a better time to fight for justice. Responding to the resurgence of the #MeToo movement in 2017, sex workers from across the industry - hookers and prostitutes, strippers and dancers, porn stars, cam models, Dommes and subs alike - complicate narratives of sexual harassment and violence, and expand conversations often limited to normative workplaces. Writing across topics such as homelessness, motherhood, and toxic masculinity, We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival gives voice to the fight for agency and accountability across sex industries. With contributions by leading voices in the movement such as Melissa Gira Grant, Ceyenne Doroshow, Audacia Ray, femi babylon, April Flores, and Yin Q, this anthology explores sex work as work, and sex workers as labouring subjects in need of respect - not rescue. Read more

A sassy, heart-breaking and jaw-dropping memoir of life behind the scenes in a funeral home and strip club, written with all the panache, honesty and sensitivity of Rosie Waterland's The Anti-Cool Girl and Sarah Krasnostein's The Trauma Cleaner.Emma Jane Holmes had her dream job, working in the funeral industry, caring for those who could no longer care for themselves. But when the bills mounted after her marriage breakdown, she turned to her other dream - dancing on stage as a showgirl - and her glittering alter ego Madison was born. Emma Jane kept Madison a secret. Madison kept Emma Jane an even bigger one.But what happens when death touches the neon world of the strip club? And sex - in the form of a cute co-worker - encroaches on the funeral home? Could the answer be life, lived in the day, because that's the only day you have?Emma Jane Holmes' debut will take you into the mortuary, cemetery and crematorium - and behind the scenes in night clubs - and answer all the questions you never wanted to ask ...PRAISE'A beautiful insight into two industries we're all curious about, full of warmth and wit' - Carly Findlay OAM, author of Say Hello'Meet Australia's most outrageous mortician ... her stories are deadly' - news.com.au'Emma Jane Holmes shines a beautiful light on love, death and connection' - Samantha X, author of Hooked'We're all going to die sometime ... Emma Jane Holmes brings so much light to the subject' - Andy Dowling, Andy Social podcast Read more

When Dawn Annandale’s marriage fell apart she was overwhelmed by debt and turned to prostitution to support her family. After one year, a near-fatal car crash and numerous encounters with men, she made the decision to stop working as an escort. But with six children to support there were few options to sustain the lifestyle to which they were accustomed. With her inside knowledge of the sex industry, Dawn decided to start her own businessan escorting agency, where she could provide support, advice, and safety for women who were in the dire straits she had once been in.Call Me Madam is the true story of how former escort Dawn started up her own agency and of the many incredible women, and remarkable array of men, who crossed her path. Revealing and shocking, yet warm, engaging and utterly honest, this book sheds a light on the dark side of world’s oldest trade. Read more

Winner of 15 literary awards, Amsterdam Exposed tells the true one-of-a-kind story of an innocent exchange student who moves to Amsterdam hoping to write a book about the red light district and everything that follows. It's an American abroad story, and also a love story; it's an uplifting tragedy, full of humor from beginning to end; it's an Amsterdam survival guide; a sympathetic look at a societal problem; a little piece of policy; a sweet farewell to a world just about gone; and, ultimately, as close as you can come to a free trip to Amsterdam without leaving your couch. In sum, Amsterdam Exposed takes readers deep into the district on a journey never before possible, forever reshaping their understanding of one of the most famous tourist attractions in the world, and the women who work there. If you've ever spent time in Amsterdam, or dreamed of doing so, this book's for you.AwardsGrand Prize, Hollywood Book Festival First Place, Memoir, Writer's Digest Self-Published eBook Awards First Place, Travel, Beverly Hills Book AwardsFirst Place, Travel, IndieReader Discovery AwardsGold Medal, Memoir, Dan Poynter's Global Ebook Awards Gold Medal, Travel, Human Relations Indie Book AwardsSilver Medal, Travel, Readers' Favorite Book AwardsSecond Place, Memoir, Reader Views Literary AwardsWinner, B.R.A.G. MedallionDistinguished Favorite, Independent Press AwardFinalist, Best Book AwardsFinalist, International Book AwardsFinalist, IAN Book of the Year AwardsFinalist, Top Shelf Book AwardsRunner-Up, Biography/Autobiography, London Book FestivalEndorsements"One of the best reads of my life." -- Tommy Flanagan, star of Sons of Anarchy, Braveheart and Gladiator"This is one fantastic book. An insider's look at a world few understand. And I lived there. A real adventure. Get it. Read it." -- David Labrava, star of Sons of Anarchy, and author of Becoming a Son"At its core, this important, brave and moving book is about being honest with ourselves and our own humanity . . . A love story unlike any other, this is a book everyone should read." -- Adam Rodriguez, star of Criminal Minds, CSI Miami and Magic Mike"A beautifully therapeutic read . . . I loved it." -- Dougie Baldwin, star of Disjointed and Nowhere Boys"Compelling, insightful, tense, heartbreaking, often humorous, but most importantly, never judgmental . . . It's a truly enjoyable tale, an honest expose, and a helluva fun ride . . . one that I highly recommend you take." -- Michael Trucco, star of Battlestar Galactica and How I Met Your Mother Read more

The shocking story of a young girl forced into prostitution by her own father, and her painful journey to escape her horrific childhood and build a new life for herself and her sons.Maria's dad was a pimp, living in a world of thieves and street-walkers. Her mother, tiring of turning tricks for her husband, walked out, leaving the children in his chaotic, violent and sometimes cruel care. By the age of nine, Maria's father was abusing her and getting a prostitute friend to dress her up in stockings and make-up. By the time she was fourteen he was selling her on the streets of the red light district in Norwich.Despite everything Maria still loved her swaggering and sometimes charming father and found it hard to sort out her own feelings. At fifteen she ran away to King's Cross with an older lover who turned out to be just another pimp. Furious at losing a nice little earner her father involved the police and both he and the other man were jailed for living off Maria's immoral earnings. Only then could Maria escape her traumatic childhood and follow her dream of becoming a mother. Read more

'If you read the papers, you'd think that the only girls to get hooked are from dysfunctional families. But what happened to me could happen to anyone. Your child, your sister, your friend – even yourself if you are young and naive enough, like I was'Emma was just 13 when her happy childhood came crashing down. A nice girl from a good home, she had no idea the young lads she and her friends met every Saturday in the shopping mall weren’t all they seemed.The boys were part of an organised child sexual exploitation gang targeting innocent young girls, grooming them for prostitution. Captivated by the ring leader, and the alcohol and drugs he freely handed round, Emma didn't see the first brutal rape coming. From that moment, her life was never her own.Emma found herself drawn into a trap of degradation and violence, frightened for her life and not knowing where to turn. But Exploited is also the story of how she found the courage and inner strength to risk everything, and escape.Exploited is an updated edition of Emma's book The End of My World - brought bang up to date with a brand new chapter. Read more

''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.' IndependentThis follow-up to the hugely successful 'Intimate Adventures' will be just as bold, funny and brilliant. Peppered with agony-aunt letters and advice, and stories from her 'working' life, it's also the story of a young woman making her way in the world - told in Belle's inimitable voice. Read more

For too long the global sex industry and its vested interests have dominated the prostitution debate repeating the same old line that sex work is just like any job. In large sections of the media, academia, public policy, government and the law, the sex industry has had its way. Little is said of the damage, violation, suffering, and torment of prostitution on the bodies and minds of mostly women and children, nor of the deaths, suicides and murders that are routine in the sex industry. This book refutes the lies and debunks the myths spread by the industry through the lived experiences of women who have survived prostitution. These disturbing stories give voice to formerly prostituted women who explain why they entered the sex trade. They bravely and courageously recount their intimate experiences of harm and humiliation at the hands of sex buyers, pimps and traffickers and reveal their escape and emergence as survivors. Edited by Caroline Norma and Melinda Tankard Reist, the book documents the reality of prostitution revealing the cost to the lives of women and girls. This book will strengthen and support the global campaign to abolish prostitution, provide solidarity and solace to those who bear its scars, and hopefully help women and girls exit this dehumanising industry. Read more