Belle de Jour's Guide to Men

Remember last year when Belle de Jour famously ‘outed’ herself before an ex-boyfriend could do it?

Dr Brooke Magnanti, the woman behind the nom de plume Belle de Jour, who authored the racy anonymous blog documenting her sex work, which was later turned into a book called The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl, now brings us a guide to men gleaned from her ample, ample experience.

Don’t expect a straightforward sex guide, ladies. Belle has written in her sassy, chatty and intimate manner a comprehensive guide to everything about men, not just the physical.

Attend to your own needs first

Surprise! She suggests you attend to your own needs first, and that has to be a good sign that we’re getting advice from someone who just knows. The sub-heading of the first chapter goes: A Man is For Life, Not Just for Christmas, and here she reveals that men do require a lot of work, care and attention.

She suggests things like, “be the sort of person you want to be with,” instead of  the one who “sits at home draining a bottle of white every night and listening to her cervix cobweb over.”

Know your man-hunting style and what you want are further gems from Chapter 1, and it keeps getting better.

Good advice from a call girl

She covers dating, how to be alluring and also how to be successfully single, throwing in a man’s point of view towards the end to tie it all up nicely.

She also cautions about sex work, something she seemed to have quite enjoyed but would want you, the reader, to consider very, very carefully before diving in. (This is not a manual, girls, and not to be taken over-seriously).

So yes, it’s advice about men from a (former) prostitute, but one who is now in a loving relationship. If anyone should know about men, she should. For Valentine’s Day? Nice, light-hearted gift.

To order your copy on kalahari.net click here.

Author info: Cindy Moritz

Cindy Moritz is All4Women's contributing editor based in Cape Town. She spent ten years in magazine publishing, and was editor of fashion business title Pursuit for most of that time. She went on to edit popular parenting title Cape Town's Child, drawing on her own experience as mother of two young children. Deciding to practise what she preached, after a couple of years Cindy gave up the office job to pursue that fine balance of work and life which freelancing offers, and after having features published in a number of local magazines including Elle, Longevity, Femina and Strictly Business, she discovered www.all4women.co.za and online publishing. She's never looked back.