The Duke of Westminster

I have just finished reading the biography of Gerald Grosvenor, the 6th Duke of Westminster. It is called The Reluctant Billionaire by Tom Quinn. There was a big scandal a few years ago when it was revealed that Grosvenor had spent lots of money on high-class prostitutes.

A journalist had interviewed a number of these girls and this is what he said:-

"They told me that it was either being an escort girl or doing cleaning jobs, which paid almost nothing and were often degrading. One said, 'If I had stayed at home it was poverty - no job, no life, no fun. In London I could live like a princess but only working as an escort girl. I could have been a cleaner or worked in a coffee bar for the minimum wage so I had to choose. I thought it would be better to sleep with the super-rich - even if they were old and boring and sometimes ugly!'"

Despite being a billionaire, Grosvenor didn't usually ask for the most expensive of the escorts from the agency that he used. They would have cost £5,000 per hour. Instead he usually paid between £500 and £1,000 per hour. The most expensive option would have been to pay £30,000 for one of the most expensive escorts to spend the whole day or night with him, but we don't know if he ever did that.

Of course, this is at the opposite end of what I have been doing, spending £50 or less for half an hour. In Soho, I used to spend £20 for 10 minutes. I think it is still true though that nearly all sex workers in Britain are not coerced and could work as a cleaner or in a coffee bar. The Radical Feminists and the Evangelical Christians tell people that women are coerced by violent pimps and not paid or they are in danger of homelessness or hunger.

Migrants come to Britain to avoid homelessness or hunger. Most don't choose sex work. They work as cleaners, in a coffee bar or somewhere else. Cleaners can be victims of modern day slavery and so can others, including sex workers. This is rare though.

The escorts said that Grosvenor was boring and the opposite of generous, but he wasn't abusive. I've often wondered why abusers like Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris did what they did. They could have paid for beautiful escort girls, as Gerald Grosvenor did, but instead they seemed to want to harm and upset women and girls.

One aspect of this book is that there is an attempt to explain why Grosvenor wanted to see escorts. It's as if people think that it is such aberrant behaviour that it needs to be explained psychologically, as a personality flaw caused by childhood unhappiness. It is said that he had a loveless childhood and was traumatised by his boarding school. This would have caused him to seek sex without involvement.

Yet we know that he was married, so it's not as if he avoided involvement. People sometimes think that men who pay for sex are unwilling or unable to form relationships. They pay for it because they can't get it in the usual way.

When you think what his ancestor, the 2nd Duke of Westminster, got up to it is difficult to see the 6th Duke as such a flawed person. The 2nd Duke - Hugh Grosvenor - and his contemporaries did not lead peaceful and contented lives. Drunkenness, divorce, promiscuity, casual relationships, gambling-addiction, suicide and drug-taking were very much part of their lives. The Queen had an uncle, Prince George Duke of Kent, who was a drug addict.

Gerald Grosvenor married Natalia Phillips. Her father was Bunny Phillips, who was Lady Mountbatten's lover. I was already aware of some of Lady Mountbatten's lovers (Leslie Hutchinson, Lord Molyneaux and Laddie Sanford) but Bunny Phillips was one I hadn't heard of. It seems you don’t have to be ladylike to be a Lady.

The aristocrat with the most interesting love life of the inter-war period, the period of Hugh Grosvenor and Lady Mountbatten, was Marmaduke Furness - 1st Viscount Furness. He had 3 wives. He was accused of murdering his first wife*. If he had been found guilty he would have been hanged, but it is said that as a peer of the realm it would have been with a silken rope.

His second wife was Thelma Morgan. As Thelma Furness she became mistress of the Prince of Wales and lover of Aly Khan (playboy son of the Aga Khan). His third wife was Enid Lindeman. He was her third husband (she had tried to get Hugh Grosvenor interested in her). She smoked opium and injected heroin. She had been married to a Brigadier General in Cairo and it is said she had sex with the entire regiment for a dare*.

Drinking and betting are a part of many if not most people's lives. Few people have long and happy marriages. If I buy bottles of whisky or lose money on a bet nobody will think it odd. Yet if I spend the same amount of money on spending time with a beautiful naked woman people think that it needs explanation. I've never understood the attraction of getting drunk or betting, I prefer to spend my money on more sensible things.

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*Since writing this I have read more about these characters. It seems that the book I had read about them (The Mistress of Mayfair by Lyndsy Spence) is not accurate. It was only gossip that said Marmaduke Furness has murdered his first wife, no formal accusations were made, although the circumstances of her death and burial were unusual. Enid Lindeman was not a heroin addict. She - Enid Cavendish as she was then - did not have sex with the entire regiment, only the officers. So that's alright then.

review of Paid For part 3

There are several different aspects to this book. One aspect, her own personal experiences, is very interesting. Another aspect, her comments on her experiences, is not interesting. For example, in Chapter 10 she says that she met 'advantaged middle-class women' who were prostitutes. That is interesting, because it contradicts what the 'abolitionists' say. When Moran comments that these women must all have something wrong with them, probably child abuse, that is not interesting, because that's just her opinion.

"They were privileged. They were educated, only to second level usually but even so, I am talking about well-to-do fee-paying private schools. They seemed to have had other viable choices open to them; they could have gone to university, they could have gone to work in daddy's business, but yet here they were in this awful place doing something they clearly hated and that obviously made them miserable." Chapter 10 page 96.

Moran wrote in the same chapter that she knew one woman who managed to save ten thousand pounds. This woman would have been even better off if she hadn't spent so much money on overheads - rent, advertising, mobile phone, taxis, clothes and shoes. Moran criticised her for this: "The whole idea was supposed to be about making a half-decent living, I'd say to her, for God's sake" page 92.

The ex-preacher Gavin Shuker (now an MP but not for much longer I hope) said this in a debate about prostitution in the House of Commons: "There is undoubtedly a huge supply of money, estimated by some to be £5 billion or £6 billion of our economy, but that money is not finding its way into the pockets of women who are exploited through this trade; it ends up in the pockets of pimps, exploiters and those who benefit from trafficking."

In the debate Moran's book was mentioned three times. It's almost as if they haven't read it. She wrote that the reason she and others became prostitutes was 'the opportunity to put roofs over our heads and food in our mouths' page 73. She didn't hand over her money to 'pimps, exploiters and those who benefit from trafficking'. So her experiences contradict what Shuker and other abolitionists say.

This leads us on to the question of is it a good idea to remove the opportunity for women to put roofs over their heads and food in their mouths. This is a question that has been answered by Molly Smith and Juno Mac in their excellent book 'Revolting Prostitutes'. On page 150 they write this:-

"One anti-prostitution organization, the Women's Support Project, write in support of the Nordic model: 'If men were not prepared to buy sex, then prostitution would not work as a survival behaviour.' When you enact a policy that makes a survival strategy 'not work' any more, some of the people using it to attempt to survive may no longer survive."

I don't believe that all women who become prostitutes do so because they would otherwise be homeless or starve. Many will survive by low-paid work and then they turn to prostitution when they want something better than survival. We can all agree that there should be social security so that nobody remains homeless or hungry.

If you really believed that prostitution exists because of destitution, then you would campaign to eliminate destitution. Prostitution would disappear, together with destitution, without the need to put men and women in prison or fine them. Without taking away anyone's rights. Without removing that safety net that should still be there while society works to achieve the goal of removing destitution, which is a worthwhile goal in itself. They don't campaign for that though.

Another important question that Molly Smith and Juno Mac answer in their book is about how some laws can make prostitution more dangerous for women. It is important for sex workers to be able to screen potential clients. Street sex workers could do this but the 1993 law in Ireland and the 1999 law in Sweden made this much more difficult. On page 144 they write this:-

"Everywhere in the world, regardless of the legal model, street-based sex workers use a familiar range of safety strategies. For example, they might work together with a couple of friends, they might take time to assess a client before getting into his car, and they might have a friend write down his car's number plate to signal to him that someone will know who she's with."

A woman who is was a street-based sex worker (as Moran was) either had to give up working on the street and work indoors (as Moran mostly did) or continue under more difficult circumstances. In either case she can no longer screen her clients in the way she used to. Moran said this was a big problem with the 1993 Irish law. Smith and Mac say this was a big problem with the 1999 Swedish law. Yet Moran and others successfully campaigned for the Swedish law to be enacted in Ireland. This happened in 2017, and according to newspaper reports it seems to have been a complete disaster.

A major theme of this book is trauma. She writes that she was traumatised by having to have sex for money. People don't usually do things that traumatise them a second time. You might think that she was forced to do it because she had no other way of making money. However, she seemed to have quite a few different ways of making money. I'm not talking about her early attempts at erotic dancing and erotic photography. I'm talking about her drug dealing and her pimping.

"I had progressed to snorting cocaine at that point and would procure it for certain punters, making a mark-up on it, so that I was profiting from the drug transaction as well as whatever bizarre fantasies I was helping these men indulge." Chapter 9 page 87.

"I rented an apartment in Terenure for a short time and opened an escort agency of my own. I was seventeen at the time and I'm quite sure I was the youngest person advertising an escort agency in Ireland. It was a very simple thing to do and only required an apartment, a mobile phone and an advertisement in the back of In Dublin magazine, but when I had to deal with the reality of the ridiculous overheads, I soon got rid of the apartment and advertised for call-outs only. I worked mainly in the brothels and escort agencies of others from then on and did my own call-outs to homes and hotels. If I'd get a request for a call-in on my agency line I'd use a bedroom in the brothel of one of the women I was associating with at that time. I'd pay them a fee for the use of the room, which was common practice. I'd made money that way when I had my own apartment." Chapter 10 page 93.

As someone who has spent years on Job Seeker’s Allowance I'm not very sympathetic to people who sell drugs or pimp and who justify it by saying they needed the money. I never did that, I lived within my means on benefits. Many people in Ireland travelled to England and worked night shifts in factories. So to say she had no other option is far from the truth.

She wrote that she never had the opportunity to do an ordinary job, such as working in a bank. She wrote that she didn't feel worthy of that type of work. Well I would never have been allowed to work in a bank. You don't have to feel worthy to live on the dole or work in a factory.

Many women and men become full-time drug dealers or pimps. If she hated 'paid intercourse' so much why did she not do one or both of these? She said she didn't want to deal with the reality of the ridiculous overheads. Is she saying that prostitutes keep more money than pimps? She was 17 and hadn't yet developed her cocaine addiction. I'm not saying that women should do anything apart from prostitution, but if you are really traumatised by it then it's odd you should continue because of something about overheads.

Not once in this book does she express regret about the harm she did when she sold drugs or pimped. She does express regret about having been a prostitute. I don't expect anyone to feel guilty about being a prostitute, but I do expect people to feel guilty about dealing or pimping. Especially when pimps (and men like me) are demonized by people like her.

I have said that there are several different aspects to this book. One of them is her own personal experience. Another is her comments about her experiences. A third aspect is the quotations from Ruhama and others which begin each chapter and which I commented on in the first part of my review of this book.

There is a fourth aspect, and this is where she writes about some of her experiences but in a very vague and ambiguous way. It is clear what she intends us to believe, but it is not clear if there is evidence to back that interpretation. Consider this:-

"What was going on was the very same thing that was going on when I was lifting my skirt in a backstreet alley. The nature of prostitution does not change with its surroundings. It does not morph into something else because your arse is rubbing up against white linen as opposed to roughened concrete." Chapter 10 page 100.

She said that she only did handjobs and oral sex up till 1993. Then, after a change in the law, she had to start working indoors. She went back onto the streets sometimes though. One can only assume this was because on the streets she didn't have to do the 'paid intercourse' that she disliked so much and only did 'sporadically'. So why is she writing about her arse rubbing up against roughened concrete? How would she know what street girls do?

My understanding is that street girls don't wear skirts. They wear jeans, and they pull them down a bit and bend forward so they can be taken from behind. So they don't experience their arses rubbing up against concrete, either that of paving or a wall. But then again, maybe they did it differently in Ireland in the 1990s. Why doesn't she make clear what the facts are?

Another thing that is odd is that for the first two years men accepted that she didn't want to do vaginal or anal sex. Later they accepted that she didn't want to do anal sex. Yet they didn't accept that she didn't want to be penetrated with fingers or objects both vaginally and anally. She says that men didn't accept the limits of the 'agreed contractual exchange'.

My own experience of prostitution is that few women allow digital penetration. It is not usual for a prostitute to say beforehand that she doesn't allow it. If I ask for it she will most likely say no, or sometimes she will say she charges extra for that. Occasionally she will let it happen without additional payment. I have never forced anything upon a woman.

If Moran had written "I told him to stop but he wouldn't listen" or "I told him he would have to pay extra for that but he went ahead anyway" then we would be clear about what happened. That would be sexual assault or rape. But she doesn't write that.

In Chapter 23 on page 252 Moran writes this:-

"A 2005 Ruhama research report on barriers affecting women in prostitution states: 'Studies in Ireland have found that 38% of women involved in prostitution have attempted suicide and 25% suffered from diagnosed depression and were in receipt of medical treatment'. It is my personal conviction that the twenty-five percent of prostitutes recorded as having depression in Ireland is a significant underestimate of the true figure and that many prostitutes have not been diagnosed simply because they have not presented their symptoms to a doctor."

If you look for this Ruhama report it does indeed say this:-

"There are also high levels of stress related illnesses. Studies in Ireland have found that 38% of women involved in prostitution have attempted suicide and 25% have suffered from diagnosed depression (O’Connor, 1994)."

The Ruhama report is Factors affecting prostitution – Damage and survival mechanisms. In the references section they give the full title of the work they say they derive these statistics from: O’Connor, A. M. (1994) Health Needs of Women Working in Prostitution in the Republic of Ireland, First Report for EUROPAP, Dublin: Eastern Health Board.

However, the O'Connor 1994 document says nothing about either suicide or depression. What's going on? There is another document, written by O'Connor and somebody else that does contain these statistics. It is O’ Neill, M. and O Connor, A.M. (1999) Drug Using Women Working in Prostitution, Report prepared by the Women’s Health Project, Dublin: Eastern Health Board.

Now that we know the correct title of the document we can tell immediately that it is not about prostitutes in general in Ireland, but about prostitutes who are drug addicts in Dublin. As the study itself says "Numerous studies have highlighted the fact that women working in prostitution who are drug users, particularly intravenous drug users (IDUs), appear to be a different population from those who are non-IDUs." The number of drug addicted prostitutes is a fraction of the total number of prostitutes.

The study was of 77 women. All were drug users. 95% were working on the streets. 45% were homeless. Between 11% and 28% had HIV. 52% had been charged with soliciting. This had resulted in 20% of those women being imprisoned and 12% fined. 29 of the 77 (38%) reported having attempted suicide. 19 of the 77 (25%) suffered from diagnosed depression and had received treatment.

"Living with drugs causes considerable strains. A woman drug user who is also a mother faces specific problems organising her drug-related needs around her commitments as a parent, especially where young children are involved. Another dimension to the drugs issue for women is dealing with the reality of prison sentences for themselves, their partners, their siblings or their adult children. Prison sentences for drug related offences severely cut across family networks and reduce still further levels of support for women." O’ Neill, M. and O Connor, A.M. (1999)

Their problems were numerous: addiction, homelessness, imprisonment, fines, and risk of HIV as well as street prostitution. We know that drugs can increase depression, and people with depression may be more vulnerable to addiction. So to say that a quarter of prostitutes are so unhappy in prostitution that they suffer from depression and that even more attempt suicide is simply wrong. It is a deliberate distortion of research. They have hidden the facts.

What they are doing is using research that applies only to drug addicted street prostitutes and pretending that it applies to all prostitutes. They have used this tactic time and time again. It is dishonest. Another tactic they use is to bury information. Instead of referring us directly to the research which is the source of the statistic, they refer instead to a document that refers to it. Or a document that refers to another document that refers to the research.

So if someone tells you that the number of active sex buyers in Sweden is the lowest in Europe, or that there is no evidence that criminalizing men increases the risk to women, you should remember that you have to trace the evidence back to the original study. They know that most people, no matter how much they say they care, can't be bothered to do that.

The O'Connor 1994 study is interesting, resulting from interviews with 18 street-based sex workers after the introduction of the 1993 law. It says twice that they are not a representative sample of sex workers in Ireland.

"Three (17%) of the women felt very strongly that the new law is leading to the emergence of pimps (male protectors) and therefore, an increase in violence and intimidation on the streets. One said "anyone with enough money to rent an apartment and a mobile phone can go into business as a pimp. These men are offering protection and a "safe house" to women who are working. "They leech (latch) onto the women providing protection and paying bail, that's when the violence comes in"." O'Connor, A.M. (1994)

We know that at least one woman was leeching onto the women and that was Rachel Moran. It seems that sex workers don't hate people like me, they hate people like her. I think that O'Connor and O'Neill did good work interviewing street-based sex workers. Their data should have been used to improve the lives of the most vulnerable women. Instead it has been abused by Moran (former pimp) and Ruhama (The Church) to bring in legislation that harms the most vulnerable women. She exploited them then and she's exploiting them now.

The only time Moran mentions decriminalisation is when she writes about the Nordic model decriminalising the sale of sex. It doesn't. Prostitutes go to jail under the Nordic model. There is no mention of New Zealand where prostitutes are genuinely decriminalised: they do not go to jail. She is not presenting both sides of the argument. She does not mention the difference between legalisation and decriminalisation.

There is the issue of why do sex workers get paid so much. At the end of Chapter 19 page 204 she writes this: "Their higher pay does not reflect gender parity; it reflects the difficulty involved in earning it". In a way she's right.

Incidentally, on this page she uses her most florid language. Phrases such as 'the decision to sell the flesh on one's bones' and 'to bear the burden of its corruption on their bodies' may go down well with the abolitionist audience and especially the Christians but to me they are laughable.

If you go to Manchester the going rate for half an hour with a sex worker is £35 to £40. If you go to Liverpool it is £70. In Liverpool the going rate for a straight massage with nothing sexual is £25 to £30 for a half hour. The reason why Liverpool sex workers demand more than Manchester sex workers is not because they hate what they are doing more but because the police have a different attitude. In Liverpool women find it more difficult to work and keep themselves safe. It is the police who create the difficulty not the punters.

Note that she doesn't say that the money goes to pimps and traffickers and not to the women.

In the epilogue on page 293 Moran writes that "Prostitution first fell sharply in one place and one place only. That is in the nation which suppressed demand. A global implementation of Sweden's laws, which criminalise demand, is the one thing I'd most like to see before I die." This repeats her statement that "prostitution in Sweden has plummeted" in Chapter 20 page 215. Although there has been an effect on street prostitution, none of the reports from Sweden show an overall reduction in demand. I have devoted a page to this issue, and I have devoted a post to the disaster that is happening now that the Nordic model has come to Ireland, with women being jailed not decriminalised. This dishonest book helped to bring this situation about.

In Chapter 21 page 233 she writes about 'pro-prostitution groups' who march in Gay Pride Festivals around the world. She writes that the gay community is being used and 'the pro-prostitution lobby is trying to pull a fast one here'.

By pro-prostitution groups/advocates/lobby she means people who believe in genuine decriminalisation for sex workers, as happens in New Zealand. They are not 'pro-prostitution', they just don't want sex workers to be arrested for working together for safety. It is the 'abolitionists' who are trying to pull a fast one by pretending that they don't want 'prostituted' women to be arrested. Ruhama is now pretending that they never intended this to happen in Ireland even though this issue was discussed before 2017.

Abolitionists are a threat to gay men and lesbian women. They are a threat to transsexual people. Jim Wells, the Northern Ireland DUP politician, is a Christian. He is a Creationist who has got into trouble with his views on abortion and gay rights.

He was instrumental in getting the Nordic model adopted in Northern Ireland, where the first man to be arrested was arrested along with three women. He used a false statistic to do that. He said in the Northern Ireland Assembly that 127 prostitutes were murdered in the Netherlands after legalisation there.

Rachel Moran repeated this false statistic on radio. Julie Bindel and Kat Banyard quote 'Mr Wells' in their recent books. Banyard uses his false statistic.

So it's not surprising that sex workers and people who genuinely believe in their decriminalisation are welcome at Gay Pride Festivals. Obviously they aren't a sexual minority, but then neither are transsexuals who are also welcome and also threatened by people like 'Mr Wells'. Third-wave sex-positive feminists belong here too.

If the abolitionists don't like it then they can have their own parade. What would that look like? They could have Jim Wells to lead it, but then maybe they would keep him out of sight because you don't want to let the mask slip. But you could have another evangelical like Ian Paisley junior or Gavin Shuker. Ian Paisley junior has said "We don't like poofs" and was Chair in a debate where Gavin Shuker and Fiona Bruce spoke in favour of the Nordic model.

Or MP Fiona Bruce from the Evangelical Alliance. She is trying to get the Nordic model adopted in Britain. She voted against gay marriage and wants to restrict abortion. The nuns of Ruhama would be there, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters could each have their own floats. It might seem odd that Evangelicals, Catholics and Radical Feminist lesbians can work together but one thing unites them: they don't like men and women having casual sex.

Radical Feminists like Julie Bindel and Kat Banyard would be there. There could be a guest speaker from America, a social conservative who could talk about incarceration of men and women: after all the American model is the same as the Nordic model just without the hypocrisy. Another guest could be an African preacher or politician, one of the ones who put gay men and lesbian women in prison. Maybe someone from the Taliban?

Pride of place would be the survivors. Women like Rachel Moran and Anna, who we are all supposed to be listening to, despite the fact that they tell different stories. Anna's book 'Slave' makes 'Paid For' look like 'Belle de Jour'. Dr Brooke Magnanti wouldn't be invited because she doesn't count as a survivor. Also she's an expert in statistics so she might upset the nuns.

The biggest problem with this book is that the main message is women go into prostitution to avoid poverty. This is different from the 'abolitionist' message and Anna's book which says it is all about violent pimps or traffickers. Also, Moran contradicts her own message when she writes about the 'advantaged middle-class women' that she knew.

A big problem for her message is that if you say that women do it to avoid poverty then you are open to the criticism that most people work to avoid poverty. If your answer to that is saying that you feel offended by someone saying that sex work might have some similarity to working in a factory (even though she compared sex workers to bank robbers) and something about someone putting his penis up your anus (even though no-one put his penis up her anus) it's not convincing.

I found these on a Radical Feminist site

down by the river

Yesterday I went to Chester on the train. I wasn't intending to see a sex worker but I wondered what would happen if I went onto the internet and looked for escorts in Chester. I wasn't expecting much because I have tried to find sex workers using AdultWork years ago and gave up because of poor results. My phone is not a smartphone and I can't access AdultWork but I found some adverts on vivastreet.

It looked as if I would be able to send a text message easily. I chose one at random and asked if she would be available that afternoon. She replied and I made an appointment to see her at 3 pm. She didn't give me her full address but it was in an appartment block in Saddlery Way. That sounded familiar and later I realized that I'd been to Saddlery Way to see a sex worker before.

There are some lovely private apartment blocks between the racecourse and the river. The only two sex workers that I knew of in Chester are two 'mature ladies'. I know of them because they advertized in local papers. One of them works from a flat in one of those apartment blocks.

At 2.50 pm I was sitting next to the river and I texted the Thai woman to tell her I was next to the apartments so she could give me the number to go to. There was no reply so at 3 pm I phoned her. It went to voicemail. I wasn't bothered because I thought she would probably be older and less attractive than her advert made her out to be.

I thought as I am here now I might as well give the mature lady a call. She said she was busy till 4 pm but I could come then if I wanted. So I told her that's what I'll do. Minutes later the Thai woman texted. She asked me to give her five minutes then come to her flat. Another text message gave me her flat number and said come straight away.

When she opened the door to me I was very surprised. She was tall, slender, young and pretty. She had a lovely brown skin and long dark hair. I don't think I have ever been with a girl as attractive as her. Her English is very good and she seems to be an educated young lady. She is also fun loving.

I paid £70 for my half hour with Sara and I spent most of the time on top of her shagging her. Towards the end she put one of my fingers in her pussy. She moved her hand and pelvis so that I got a nice feel of the inside of her vagina. Her phone number is +447393482377 and I can recommend her.

As she was showing me to the door she had put her glasses on which made her look even more sexy. She looked like a student.

I still had my 4 pm appointment with the mature lady. I decided to keep it. I told her about Sara. The mature lady doesn't do vaginal or anal penetration, she only does oral sex or hand relief. She does oral sex without a condom. I spent 20 minutes with her and she only charged me £20. She told me that there's a brothel near to Chester station, I don't know about that one.

I might go to see both of them next Tuesday. Sara won't be there much longer. I think she said she will be there to the 15th of this month.

2 flats in Ropewalks

I found out about a sex worker in a flat in the Ropewalks area of Liverpool. I have written about Ropewalks before. I wrote that there seems to be a few opportunities for paid-for sex in Ropewalks, whereas Liverpool generally doesn't have much available compared to Manchester. There are Thai and Chinese massage establishments where a basic sexual service is usually available, and one or two places where you can get full sex.

I found out about this flat on a discussion group. Someone said how much he likes Sakura. Sakura used to be a sleazy place on Seel Street, but now they have new premises off Duke Street that are much nicer. They are Chinese and they offer massage and 'extras'. I had been to the old Sakura, and I had got full sex there. I had more recently been to the new Sakura for a massage and was offered hand relief but I didn't fancy the girl so I declined the offer.

Someone else on the discussion group wrote that he doesn't know why anyone bothers with Sakura, there's a flat right next to it where you can get full sex from a Chinese girl. I was intrigued by this, I wondered if the flat is the same one that Maya worked from. Maya is a black woman who advertized in local newspapers and worked as an independent from a flat in the same block as Sakura. I had seen Maya twice and noticed that recently she hasn't had her ad in the papers.

The man put a link to the vivastreet ad for this Chinese girl. I looked at the ad. I had never used vivastreet before. There seem to be a lot of escorts advertizing on there. The girl's name is Lisa and the man on the discussion group gave the impression that she's a student. She charges £70 for a half hour. I thought I might give it a go so I copied the phone number. I phoned and asked if I could see her the next day at 3. She texted me the address.

I found the block of flats in Duke Street then phoned her. The number of the flat wasn't in the text. It went to voicemail so I left her a message. I also texted her and asked her to phone or text when she's available. I tried to phone her a couple of times more over the next couple of hours but with no success.

I thought I would go to a nearby Thai massage place for half an hour. Not Sakura, where you have to pay £30 for a half hour massage, unlike most places. I was hoping to see my favourite girl there. N. is the prettiest one. The last time I'd seen her she didn't seem to be wearing any make up but she was still pretty. She wasn't there though. The woman at reception said would I like two girls? I thought why not so I had a half hour massage with P. and A. I paid £40 for that. They asked me if I wanted hand relief so I paid another £40 for that. They took it in turns to wank me.

It was a pleasant experience but what I really wanted was to see a younger woman fully naked in a well lit room. That's why I wanted to see Lisa. I asked P. and A. about them removing clothes and they said they could go topless but that would be more money.

I was in Liverpool a few days later and I thought I would try the number again. She answered the phone and I said can I come now? I went straight round. She's a pretty smiley woman and she gave me a big hug. She looks as if she's in her late 20s rather than her early 20s and wasn't slender but I thought she was very nice. She took off her clothes and got onto the bed, opening her legs. I got onto the bed with her and looked at her pussy, which was very nice. She had some pubic hair, as Chinese women often do.

She smiled and giggled and laughed quite a lot. She let me put my finger in her pussy inside a condom and we had full sex together. Her English was OK but not that good, with a strong Chinese accent. I realized that she probably isn't going to be an independent like Maya (it wasn't the same flat or block as Maya's). She's probably not going to be there long, and might soon be replaced by another Chinese woman. I don't think there's much point trying to book to see these women.

A few days after I saw Lisa, I decided to go into Liverpool again. I had started looking at Liverpool escorts on vivastreet. There seemed to be so many. I had thought Liverpool had so little to offer but here were all these lovely girls. They had their photos there with their details. I copied the phone number of the prettiest, Sophia. She was so pretty, slender and young I thought this is too good to be true. I'm aware that not all the photos are genuine.

It seemed to be a good option to try one of these girls. The usual alternatives for me are massage establishments in Liverpool, seedy brothels in the Wirral where the women are often old, or going to Manchester. I could have tried to see Nicole again at the Thai brothel in the Wirral but she had insisted that it was in semi darkness, which is not what I wanted.

On Tuesday I phoned Sophia's number twice, but there was no reply. Yesterday I phoned again, half expecting no-one to answer. Sophia answered and said that I could come and see her that day. She said she wasn't prepared to give her address unless I was in Liverpool. I got onto the next bus to Liverpool. I tried to phone her again but there was no reply. I had told Sophia I wanted to see her about 4, and it was now just before 3.

My plan was to try to see Lisa again if I couldn't get to see Sophia. If it wasn't the girl in the photo I would leave. In the meantime I needed something to do so I thought I would go to Sakura for a massage. Someone on the discussion group said you can see them naked for not a lot of money. The woman I saw was B., and in the semi-darkness of the room I found her quite attractive. She has a black dress on, black stockings and black boots.

When she asked me if I wanted hand relief I said we only have10 minutes left and I won't be able to come in 10 minutes. I said that I could give her £10 and she could play with my cock but not worry about giving me an orgasm. She accepted and said that if I did come I would have to give her the usual £20. After a couple of minutes I got a strong erection but I didn't feel that I was going to come no matter how long she continued.

I asked her about other extras and she said she does body-to-body. So I could have seen her naked but I would have had to pay more money.

At the end of the 30 minutes I gave B. her extra £10, got dressed and went out. Then I tried to phone Sophia again. This time she answered. She told me to go to Consett Square in Ropewalks. Or that's what I thought she said. She had a strong Spanish or South American accent. I Googled 'Consett Square Liverpool' and it gave me info about Concert Square. I asked people where Concert Square is, I hadn't heard of it, though Google said it was at one end of Seel Street.

Seel Street has been named as the UK's fourth hippest street because of its bars, clubs and after-hours clubs.

I found Concert Street, and there was a square there, but there wasn't a sign saying Concert Square so I thought I'd better check and I asked a couple of men. They said it was. I phoned Sophia again and she said she would try and see me. I said I'm near the Australian bar. She said go down the road, no not that way, the other way, yes that's right. A taxi driver blew his horn because I'd crossed without looking. She said be careful.

I got to the door and with some difficulty got into the building, talking to Sophia all the time. She said come to the second floor in the lift. I did so then she came out her front door and along the corridor to open another security door. My first impression was that she's quite pretty, although she doesn't seem to be wearing makeup and she's in casual clothes. I tried to think is she the girl in the photo and I decided she could be but that she must have put on a lot of weight. She was plump but not obese.

I decided to stay and paid her the £70 for a half hour session. She's young and cute. I could believe she's a student. She said would I like a bit of a massage first so I said yes. She'd taken off her clothes. I asked her a few questions. She said she's from Spain, she's 22, and she's been in Liverpool a few months (the vivastreet ad said she would only be in Liverpool one week). I said her photo is really fantastic, and she replied that it is her but that she's probably put on 5 kilos.

I told her I wanted to look at her pussy so she lay on the bed and opened her legs. I asked if I could turn the light on. She didn't mind that at all. I got an erection, we put a condom on and I got on top of her. That wasn't really working for me though and she said would I like a hand job. That was quite nice but then I thought I would do it myself.

I looked at Sophia to try to make myself more aroused. Then I lay back on the bed and imagined Sophia on a Friday or Saturday night when men would be shagging her after visiting bars and clubs in the area. I imagined that I was on holiday in Spain or somewhere and I'd picked up Sophia and taken her home and was shagging her without a condom and she was loving it and moaning. I brought myself to orgasm.

It sounds strange that when I was on top of this lovely young woman shagging her it wasn't doing it for me, but when I was wanking myself imagining shagging her it was. It's funny how the mind works. When I got home I looked at the photo from the vivastreet ad again. I looked at her face carefully and I decided it wasn't the girl I had just been with. It was still a lovely experience.

I did a Google picture search using Sophia's photo, which didn't come up with anything, then I did a picture search with TinEye which shows that other escorts are using this photo. So it's definitely not her.

Manchester Great Ancoats Street and Chinatown

I made my way from the train station to Great Ancoats Street yesterday. I wanted to go to Piccadilly Club where they have a line up of four semi-naked women. I was disappointed when they only had two there though. Camille was one of them. I had seen her before so I knew what to expect. I paid my £35 and Camille led me up the stairs.

Camille was looking younger and more attractive than I remembered. She's quite wild but even she has her limits. She told me not to come on her face. It was alright for me to come on her chest but not on her face. I think that's more to do with spoiling her makeup than anything else. I asked if I could put my finger in her pussy and she said yes, if I put a condom on my finger. So I got one finger inside her, then after a while took it out and put two fingers in the condom. I held it up for her to see and she was happy for me to put two fingers in. She started wanking herself and appeared to orgasm.

When my half hour was up Camille said I should book another half hour with her. She said I needed a full hour so I could come. I had other ideas though. It's not that I didn't want another half hour with Camille, it's just that I wanted to see what my other options were.

I went down the road to Passions. There were two women there. An older oriental woman who I think was there the last time. I chose Julia who is young and pretty. Again £35. Julia was a bit strange. She didn't like me lying on top of her. She said she loved doggy-style, which is what some of them say when they don't want a man on top of them. So we tried that, but it's never really worked for me. She didn't want me to touch her pussy. She kept her bikini top on the whole time. I wanted to look at her pussy and wank myself, she lay on the bed with her legs open but didn't seem happy with that either. I don't think she's going to last long in this business.

I went back to Piccadilly Club again. This time there were four women in the line up. Camille was there again, third from left. The first on the left was a tall slender beauty who gave me a shy smile. Next to her was a tall plumper woman who had quite a nice face. I was tempted by the beauty but I thought I would probably just want to stare at her face the whole time. The plumper more ordinary looking woman I thought I could come on top of her.

Her name is Sophia and she said she's from Italy. I asked her to keep her sexy dress on. I tried shagging her but something just wasn't working. The small dark room with the narrow bed was putting me off. It would have been better on a proper bed in a proper bedroom with lots of natural light. That's how it is at Passions. The ultra violet lamp lighting up odd bits of clothing added to the unreality of the situation.

I asked Sophia if she's going out tonight. She said she was. I said do you like clubbing. Having a dance. Men watching you. Picking up men. She's the sort of girl men would like to take home. I was looking at her pussy, her legs wide apart, and I asked her if she would let me put my finger inside her if I used a condom for that. She said no way. I wanked myself and she said come in tissue not on me. I got some semen on the towel and maybe a bit on the bed. I don't think I got any on her, but if I did it would have been just a couple of drops. She seemed irritated but afterwards was friendly, asking if I was married etc.

this is not one of the girls

Even though I had come with Sophia I decided to go to Chinatown and find a place I had seen. It is a Thai massage place. When I had walked past it months ago it seemed that men were queuing up outside. I found the place but it was right next to a barber shop so maybe the men were queuing up for the barber shop? I found the place and went up the stairs. It seemed quite classy. I said I would like a massage but only if I could take a quick shower before. I had spent hours on the train and then walking around Manchester. It was a warm humid day so I wanted to make it nice for the masseur. I paid £35 I think it was for an hour massage.

Usually when you take a shower at these places it is a small space. Here, however, it was a shower room. Plenty of room to move about. I had been given a big towel and a towel gown to wear. I went back into the room. It was a proper Thai massage with her moving my legs into odd positions. I had no idea if I was going to be offered some kind of sexual service or if it was just a straight massage. Part of me didn't want hand relief because I had already come not long before and I don't find it easy to come that way anyway.

A few times her hands brushed against my genitals. I was naked. I thought perhaps this is the sort of place where if you get an erection they will offer to wank you, but if you don't then it will just be a straight massage. I tried to make my cock get stiff by having sexual fantasies. The lady was older and quite short but not bad looking. She smiled, looked at my cock - which was semi-erect at this point - and said something like 'I think he's woken up now'. I held it and waggled it about. It became fully erect. I said something like 'Yes, he has definitely woken up now'.

She wanted £40 to wank me. I looked in my wallet but only had £20 so I gave her that and some loose change. She seemed to enjoy it and I certainly enjoyed it because I could feel myself about to come. I wanted it to happen and tried to visualize fountains of sperm spurting out. She knew what she was doing because I did come, for the second time that day. She made me feel that my whole day had been worthwhile after my sleazy encounters with reluctant prostitutes. I left very happy.

Glasgow v Manchester

If anyone is thinking of punting in Glasgow I would say don't bother. I could only find sex workers on the internet. The photographs were nothing like the sex worker. The going rate seems to be £80 per half hour or £160 per hour. In London or Liverpool it would be £60 per half hour. In Manchester it seems to be £35.

I went to see two sex workers, both of them were supposed to be in the city centre but were quite far out. Both worked from their homes which were in blocks of flats. It involved quite a few text messages before I could locate them. I felt a bit vulnerable, fearing I might be robbed going up the stairs. More importantly, I would think that they would be vulnerable too. I don't suppose whoever it is who decided on policing policy for prostitution in Glasgow would have thought of that. A woman on her own in a flat with lots of money would be a target for criminals.

I first saw 'Jessica' in Royston Road. Looked nothing like the photo and she wasn't South American. She wanted £80. I didn't realize at the time that this is the going rate for Glasgow so I said I'd give her £60. She accepted. It worked out well though and I came on top of her. It was a warm humid day and we were both sweaty which I think added to the pleasure.

I also saw Aitana in Tollcross Road. I gave her £80. I was only with her a few minutes when the doorbell went. She stopped what she was doing with me and went to the door. She told the man to come back in 10 minutes. So I didn't get my half hour with her and I didn't come.

On the train yesterday from Glasgow I was meant to change at Wigan North for my train to Liverpool. I asked the ticket collector if I could buy a ticket that would enable me to stay on the train and get off at Manchester Piccadilly instead. I wanted to see a sex worker of two in Manchester. I can tell you all about what I did yesterday in Manchester in my next post. It was very good.

thoughts about my first escort

On Tuesday this week I experienced my first escort. I wrote about it in my previous post. I have been thinking about it. I've only seen one escort, and so I'm hardly in a position to comment on all escorts, but there are a few things I can say.

Firstly, my escort wasn't someone from Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia desperate to make money. I can't say that about all escorts of course, but it isn't true that they're all poor women who have few choices in life. That's what some people would want you to believe, the ones who want it banned. My escort was educated in America and I expect she could have lived there if she'd wanted.

Secondly, she seemed to enjoy my company and enjoyed the sex too. When we were having sex she wanted to wank herself until she came. That was nice for me to watch. Some people will say she was only pretending, because that's what turns men on. They will say she didn't really want to be with me. But when I looked at her pussy she was obviously aroused. And why not, lot's of women will have sex for free with a stranger in a hotel room. She told me I was her first client of the day. Perhaps I was the last of the day too. I don't think she has to have sex loads of times every day.

Thirdly, not all escorts are tall, slender and beautiful. Men don't insist on women with big breasts and tiny waists. My escort wasn't tall, slender or a stunner. But she made me happy. She can make a living through escorting. Unless, of course, the radical feminists and faith groups manage to ban her from making a living. Then you've got the blokes who say why can't you get it for free. But if a man pays £50 for a meal and £50 for his date's meal, with drinks on top that's easily £120. It's not for free. And a man might have to pay for several dates before he gets any action.

People say that Belle de Jour was nothing near the reality of prostitution. Well, what I experienced on Tuesday night comes very close to that. The only real difference is that my escort wasn't young, tall, slender or a stunner. I could have got that if I'd wanted that, the agency have a website where you can select a woman you fancy.

I don't know what India is going to do with her money. She might be studying or on an internship or has her own business. Whatever she is I wish her the best and I hope the money will be a help to her.

my first escort

I'm staying in a hotel near Liverpool. Yesterday I bought the local newspaper and looked at the ads. They have a section Adult Services 18+ subsection Hostess and Escorts. There were two agencies advertizing there, Minxx Escorts and Candy Girls. I phoned the first of these and asked how much it costs to have a woman come to my hotel room.

I was told that the price is £120 per hour. That seems to be the normal rate, although I have never paid for an hour before. Last week I went to a Thai brothel and paid £60 for half an hour, and Soho girls charge £20 for 10 minutes. I was a bit worried that I might not be attracted to the woman they sent to me, that I might not be able to get an erection, or if I did I might not be able to come. However, it worked out quite well for me.

The woman on the phone asked me what type of woman I wanted. I said I didn't want someone young. I've decided that although young women can be lovely to look at, I'm much more turned on by an older woman. She said that she would send me India, who has long black hair and a darker skin. India would be driven to my hotel, the driver would leave her with me and then come back for her in an hour.

Ten minutes before India arrived she gave me a phone call. I went and met her in the hotel car park. She looked quite attractive, wearing what looked like a blue evening dress. She seemed very friendly and I led her upstairs to the room.

I had 6 £20 notes for her and she phoned the agency just to say she was OK. There are two armchairs in my room and I asked her to sit down. She told me lots of things about herself, that she is half Spanish and was educated in America. We must have spent five minutes talking, and then I said "I'll tell you what would be very sexy, if you sat with your legs apart". She smiled and did that.

I asked her to undress for me. She did so with her back to me. She's short and quite plump, but that doesn't bother me. I prefer it to being skinny. Her skin is quite dark. I asked her to lie on the bed while I got undressed. I got onto the bed with her. I said we could have a cuddle to start off with.

I told her I had not been with an escort before and I wasn't sure what we can do. She said we can do anything except anal and everything would be with a condom. I asked if that included kissing and she said yes. We had a bit of a kiss but I didn't try to put my tongue in her mouth. She took a condom off the bedside table and put it onto me and started sucking. Fortunately it was one of my special condoms, the extra sensitive ones, that I had placed there hoping we could use it.

After a minute or two I explained to her that oral sex doesn't get me aroused. I said if I looked at her pussy that would do more for me. I asked her what she enjoys and she said doggy and her on top. We tried doggy but that didn't work, her on top worked better. I said I wanted to lie on top of her and shag her. After a few minutes it was going well until I got out of breath.

I got off of her and knelt between her legs. She said she wanted to wank herself until she came. When she had orgasmed I asked her to hold her pussy open wide. It was a very attractive pussy and when she held it open I could see it was red inside. I got on top of her again and started shagging her again. She encouraged me and I came inside her.

We had a few minutes left and we lay on the bed together and talked. She told me about the two brothels they have in Liverpool and Birkenhead. When the hour was up she asked me if it was OK if she got dressed now. I was willing to take her back to the car park but she said there was no need, she could find her own way.

Last week I went to a Thai brothel in South Croydon. The maid showed me to the upstairs room. The girl was having a shower and would be a few minutes. When the girl came out of the bathroom she was wearing a white bathrobe and had a towel on her head. She was a very pretty girl. She said her name is Michelle.

When she got onto the bed with me and I knew she was going to give me some oral, I asked if she would do it without a condom. She said she couldn't do that because it is a policy of the establishment not to do that. I said I would give her an extra £10 and wash my penis. She agreed to that. I got off the bed and gave her the extra tenner then went into the bathroom. As I was washing my cock I got an erection and thought I'm onto a good thing here.

So she started sucking my willy but still I wasn't getting aroused. I did manage to come eventually by looking at her pussy and wanking myself, but I have come to realize that I find older women more arousing. Younger women are lovely but it's older women that can turn me on. That may be partly to do with they know what to say. People might wonder why I turned down a sexy girl like Mary in Greek Street and then go to see Lily who is a much older woman. But Lily can really turn me on. That's why Zara could make me come when Suzy couldn't. Suzy is as pretty as Zara, but Zara is just so much more arousing.

lucky west end girls

I have just finished reading a new book by Violet Ivy about the sex industry called Lucky Girl. It is an account of her life and in particular her involvment in different areas of the sex industry on three continents. I was especially interested in her time at the Soho walk ups, which is the area that I know most about, but her life story starts in a small town in Australia.

As a young adult she moves to the city. Finding work is difficult so she tries serving beers in a sleazy bar wearing next to no clothing. Not being happy with this she progresses to stripping. Eventually she decides to try prostitution. Her account of what she has to go though, especially the first time she has sex for money, is quite harrowing. So too is her account of her first anal sex where she is injured and robbed.

She goes to work for a year in a brothel in Kalgoorlie (I don't know where that is either). It is only when she comes to Melbourne and a high-class brothel there that things begin to look up for her. Although happy at this place, she wants to travel, so she moves to Las Vegas and works as a stripper and a sex worker. She paints a fascinating picture of a world of orgies attended by her - group bookings - against a background of the desperate gambling addicts she sees on the streets and in the casinos of Las Vegas.

Again on the move, she comes to London. Although working in the Soho walk ups is not her first option, she endures it until she is headhunted by an elite fetish brothel in Mayfair. Returning to Australia despite loving her work in Mayfair, the pinnacle of her career is accompanying a leading actor to an award ceremony. He is a gay man who needs to pretend to the world to have a girlfriend, and Violet provides that service for him.

While in Soho she is threatened by an Albanian pimp. She sends him packing. The girl in the flat above her is attacked. The police try to help, but this is in the days when CCTV was uncommon in the walk ups and maids could not always be afforded. Maids get a £2 tip from every customer but the sex worker has to pay her £60 per day. She also has to pay £240 to £280 per day in rent for the flat. Some days some of the sex workers were unable to make that amount of money and could get into debt.

Some of the readers of this blog might remember her. She called herself Sydney then and she worked in Peter Street in Soho and perhaps other places too. This would have been more than 10 years ago. There were a couple of other Australian girls working in Soho then too.

One thing I liked was her account of how she tried her best to help a 32 year old virgin enjoy his first experience of sex. She showed great sensitivity to his needs and was aware that her actions could affect his future relations with women.

Violet writes about her experience of what is perhaps the biggest problem in the life of sex workers, and that is the problem of boyfriends. A sex worker might meet a lovely man and want to have a relationship with him. Only an unsatisfactory man would accept his girlfriend working as a prostitute. So she might keep her work a secret and always fear he might find out, remain single, or accept as a boyfriend a man who might try to exploit her.

A while ago I read the book West End Girls by Barbara Tate. Barbara was a maid in Soho walk ups soon after the end of World War 2. Although the information is a bit out of date now, there is one area especially where she is relevant to today, the problem of boyfriends.

Barbara wrote that there weren't any pimps in Soho but some of the women had ponces. A ponce isn't the same as a pimp. A ponce is a man who tries to form an emotional relationship with a sex worker, not because he cares for her but because he intends to exploit her. He emotionally manipulates her and gets her to hand over her money to him. He tells her that he will invest it for their future together.

In Tate's Soho a ponce was often a Maltese man who would try to hook an established prostitute - who was nearly always a British woman. I think that many of the women in Soho today have men like this. The women are from Eastern Europe and the men are from their own country, maybe their own town. They could be 'boyfriends' who persuade them they can have a good life together in London.

Taking the two books together, it seems to confirm that the clever women are the ones who use sex work to make as much money as possible, bank it or make sensible investments, then leave. They can use the money to set themselves up, do what they really want to do in life, and they don't have to lie to their boyfriends about what they do.

Lucky Girl is a very informative and enjoyable read. We need to hear more about women's experience of the world of sex work and its unusual and occasionally frightening characters. You can buy the book at many places: Amazon, BookLocker and Book Depository. Violet has her own website.


Violet Ivy



Clare Gee on TV tomorrow

Last month I did a post about Clare Gee and her recently published book Hooked: Confessions of a London Call Girl. She will be giving an interview on television tomorrow on This Morning on ITV. The show starts at 10.30 am. Last month there was an interview with her in Cosmopolitan magazine. She has also made a second appearance on JoAnne Good's BBC Radio London show.

Having read an interview in the press I don't agree with everything she says. She says she has no time for writers like Brooke Magnanti, who she says glamourize prostitution. I'm not a great fan of Brooke Magnanti (the blogger Belle de Jour and author of Intimate Adventures Of A London Call Girl) but I think she shows one person's experience of prostitution.

I'm not a great fan of escorts but probably the majority of escorts manage to keep away from drugs or addiction. Some of them fritter away their money on holidays, clothes, champagne etc but many of them use the money to pay rent or a mortgage and bills. Some of them will save money and maybe use it to do what they really want to do with their lives.

I wanted in this blog to show what I have seen in my involvement with prostitution. There is nothing fictionalized about my blog, unlike both Clare's book and Brooke's books. Some of what they have written did not happen. I wanted to show the opposite side of the sort of thing that Brooke has written about, the dark side of prostitution, but I am not dismissing her views. If women keep away from drugs they aren't going to end up like Clare did, or worse.

Clare doesn't have a balanced point of view. What she says is probably what most people want to hear. They want to believe that prostitution is always damaging to women. They want to believe that drug addiction is always the result of psychological disturbance deriving from childhood trauma and not self indulgence and emotional immaturity. The truth is always more complex than what people want to hear.