Belle de Jour (writer)
Encyclopedia
Brooke Magnanti is a research scientist, blogger, and writer, who, until her identity was revealed in November 2009, was known by the pen name Belle de Jour. While completing her doctoral studies, between 2003 and 2004, Magnanti supplemented her income by working as a London call girl
. Her diary, published as the anonymous blog Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call Girl became increasingly popular, as speculation surrounded the identity of Belle de Jour, and whether the diary was real. Remaining anonymous, Magnanti went on to have her experiences published as The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl
in 2005 and The Further Adventures of a London Call Girl in 2006. Her first two books were UK top 10 best-sellers in the nonfiction hardback and nonfiction paperback lists. In 2007, Belle's blogs and books were adapted into a television programme, Secret Diary of a Call Girl
, starring Billie Piper
as Belle, with the real name Hannah Baxter
. In November 2009, reportedly fearing her real identity was about to come out, Magnanti revealed her real name and occupation as a child health scientist.
in 1992 and entered university at the age of 16, going on to receive a B.S. in 1996 from Florida State University
, where she was a National Merit Scholar
. She later studied for a master's degree in genetic epidemiology
and Ph.D. in forensic science from the University of Sheffield
in England. The Ph.D. thesis was submitted in 2003 and doctorate awarded in 2004.
by Joseph Kessel
and the 1967 film of the same name starring Catherine Deneuve
, directed by Luis Buñuel
. In French "Belle de Jour" is an expression translating literally as "beauty of [the] day," as opposed to "femme de nuit" or "belle de nuit," woman of the night (common euphemisms for prostitute).
The weblog Belle de Jour: Diary of a London call girl first appeared in October 2003 and won the Guardian newspaper's Best British Weblog 2003, in the second year of the award's existence. There was speculation in the media for several years as to the real identity of the author, whether Belle really was a call girl. Guesses as to who Belle was ranged from Rowan Pelling
to Toby Young
according to The Telegraph. Book contracts, copyright, and author payment were handled not under a real name but by the company Bizrealm Limited in order to maintain anonymity. In 2004 The Sunday Times featured a front-page headline incorrectly identifying Sarah Champion as the author of the blog based on erroneous textual analysis by Don Foster.
According to The Guardian
a fellow British blogger guessed her identity in 2003 but kept it secret. He made a page on his blog containing the googlewhack
of Belle de Jour and Brooke Magnanti that allowed him to see if anyone googled the two names. In 2009 he identified IP addresses originating from Associated Newspapers
that had accessed the page at which point he contacted Magnanti to alert her. Around the same time tabloid reporters had been escorted from the hospital where she worked for breaking into her office.
revealed in an interview that the author's real name is Dr Brooke Magnanti, who was 34 years of age at the time. The Guardian
s Paul Gallagher described it as the revelation of "one of the best kept literary secrets of the decade". The Daily Telegraph
s Stephen Adams said it had been "the new millennium's equivalent of the 1980s' search for the golden hare
". Such was the nature of the secret, Magnanti's work colleagues did not know until one month before she went public, her publishers had been unaware of her true identity until the previous week and her parents found out on that weekend. After signing her first book deal and starting writing articles for newspapers, only two other people were aware of her identity, her agent Patrick Walsh and her accountant, who handled the financial transactions via a shell corporation. Magnanti commented that she had thought a former boyfriend was on the verge of outing her, and later reported him to the police for threats and harassment against her and her partner.
Writing on her blog on the day of the revelation, Magnanti stated:
A spokesperson for Bristol University stated, "This aspect of Dr Magnanti's past is not relevant to her current role at the university", while her publisher said, "It's a courageous decision for Belle de Jour to come forward with her true identity and we support her decision to do so".
Since unveiling her identity as Belle de Jour, images of Brooke Magnanti appeared in several national newspapers.
, was based on two previous interviews with Magnanti in the paper and their versions published online. The claim was made that following her outing, he was widely identified as her former boyfriend and therefore mentions of his purported harassment in the articles had been damaging.
from 2003, after submitting her PhD thesis. She did so due to lack of funds before her viva voce
at the University of Sheffield
in 2003.
She had previously been a science blogger using her real name and started blogging about sex work under a pseudonym. Diary of a London Call Girl was voted Blog of the Year by The Guardian
newspaper in 2003. Awards judge Bruce Sterling
called it "Archly transgressive, anonymous hooker is definitely manipulating the blog medium, word by word, sentence by sentence far more effectively than any of her competitors ... She is in a league by herself as a blogger." Shortly after receiving the award she signed with literary agency Conville and Walsh
who negotiated a publishing deal with Weidenfeld & Nicholson.
Reviews of the books compared her writing to the works of Martin Amis
and Nick Hornby
, and she frequently quotes from the poems of Philip Larkin
. Themes of the blog and books focus on isolation and personae
. "Solitude as much as sex propels these books ... Belle's prickly disbelief in any lasting togetherness picks up an almost existential heft". She writes in Playing the Game "it's not all about the sex – never has been – it's about the heart of darkness."
From November 2005 until May 2006, Belle contributed a regular column in The Sunday Telegraph. Since her identity had been revealed she has written about UK libel laws and their effect on science for Comment Is Free
.
On 25 February 2010 Magnanti appeared on the BBC political affairs programme This Week to discuss the subject of sex education. She is also an occasional guest on The Book Show broadcast on Sky Arts
and has spoken at a number of venues including the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival in conversation with India Knight
. She has also spoken on internet and forensic identity as part of the Bristol Festival of Ideas
.
Department of Forensic Pathology
, was entitled Macrobioinformatics: the application of informatics methods to records of human remains. It was submitted in September 2003 and the degree was awarded in 2004. After moving to London and while blogging as Belle de Jour she also worked as a computer programmer in cheminformatics
at InforSense
. She blogged about this career at Cosmas.
Magnanti went on to work as a biostatistician in the Newcastle University Paediatric and Lifecourse Epidemiology Research Group (PLERG), researching a possible link between the occurrence of thyroid cancer in under-25s in NE England and radioiodine fallout exposure from Chernobyl
in Ukraine. The paper concludes that while the sustained rise in thyroid carcinoma in Cumbria could be consistent with the fallout patterns, the rising trends in Durham and Northumberland cannot be attributed to this exposure, and there may be other factors influencing the increase.
After her pseudonymous publishing career Belle was identified to be currently working as a research associate in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology at the Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health (BIRCH), part of Bristol University's Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information. Specifically she has been part of the EU-funded Henvinet consortium, researching the policies for assessing the risks of developmental neuropathology from exposure to organophosphates.
In 2011 Brooke Magnanti published a statistical re-analysis criticising the Lilith Report on Lap Dancing and Striptease in the Borough of Camden, a study which had found that sexual crimes have increased after the opening of four lap dancing venues in the area. Magnanti concluded in her paper that the study had significant methodological errors. Furthermore, according to Magnanti's paper, in the decade since lap dancing became legal Camden has seen fewer recorded rapes than other comparable boroughs of London, even those with fewer strip clubs or none. Summaries of the findings were printed in several regional and national papers such as the Guardian and the Camden New Journal.
in the UK, but eventually aired on ITV2
as Secret Diary of a Call Girl
. The first series aired from 27 September 2007 to 15 November 2007 starring Billie Piper
as Hannah Baxter
(Belle). It is now being shown in the US on Showtime. Piper met Magnanti in the course of preparing for the role but maintained her pseudonymity. A half-hour TV programme covering a meeting and conversation between the two was broadcast on ITV2
on 25 January 2010. The second series commenced broadcasting in the UK on ITV2
on 11 September 2008.
The third series began broadcasting in the UK and North America in January 2010. The fourth and final series started broadcasting in the UK on ITV2 in February 2011.
Call girl
A call girl or female escort is a sex worker who is not visible to the general public; nor does she usually work in an institution like a brothel, although she may be employed by an escort agency...
. Her diary, published as the anonymous blog Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call Girl became increasingly popular, as speculation surrounded the identity of Belle de Jour, and whether the diary was real. Remaining anonymous, Magnanti went on to have her experiences published as The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl
The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl
The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl are memoirs of a former London call girl written by Dr. Brooke Magnanti, under the pseudonym Belle de Jour....
in 2005 and The Further Adventures of a London Call Girl in 2006. Her first two books were UK top 10 best-sellers in the nonfiction hardback and nonfiction paperback lists. In 2007, Belle's blogs and books were adapted into a television programme, Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Secret Diary of a Call Girl is a British television drama broadcast on ITV2 from 2007-2011 based on the blog and books by the pseudonymous "Belle de Jour," starring Billie Piper as Belle, a high-class London call girl. The series was written by Lucy Prebble, who is also known as the author of The...
, starring Billie Piper
Billie Piper
Billie Paul Piper is an English singer and actress.She began her career in the late 1990s as a pop singer and then switched to acting. She started in acting and dancing and was talent spotted at the Sylvia Young stage school by Smash Hits magazine who wanted a "face" for their magazine...
as Belle, with the real name Hannah Baxter
Hannah Baxter
Hannah Baxter is the lead semi-fictional character and protagonist of the British ITV2 television series Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Hannah secretly has a double life as a high-class call girl as her alter ego Belle, for which she acknowledges and comments directly to the audience, throughout each...
. In November 2009, reportedly fearing her real identity was about to come out, Magnanti revealed her real name and occupation as a child health scientist.
Background and education
Magnanti grew up in Florida. She graduated from the private Clearwater Central Catholic High SchoolClearwater Central Catholic High School
Clearwater Central Catholic High School is a private college preparatory school for grades 9 through 12 and located in Clearwater, Florida, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1962, the school enrolls approximately 500 students from the Tampa Bay area...
in 1992 and entered university at the age of 16, going on to receive a B.S. in 1996 from Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
, where she was a National Merit Scholar
National Merit Scholarship Program
The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and college scholarships administered by National Merit Scholarship Corporation , a privately funded, not-for-profit organization. The program began in 1955...
. She later studied for a master's degree in genetic epidemiology
Genetic epidemiology
Genetic epidemiology is the study of the role of genetic factors in determining health and disease in families and in populations, and the interplay of such genetic factors with environmental factors...
and Ph.D. in forensic science from the University of Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
in England. The Ph.D. thesis was submitted in 2003 and doctorate awarded in 2004.
Pseudonym
Her pseudonym recalls the 1928 novel Belle de jourBelle de Jour (novel)
-Plot:The novel opens with an event from Séverine Sérizy's childhood, in which a mechanic touches the eight-year-old on her way from her bedroom to her mother's. The story then follows Séverine as a young, beautiful housewife. It is difficult for her to fulfill her sexual affinity for masochistic...
by Joseph Kessel
Joseph Kessel
Joseph Kessel was a French journalist and novelist.He was born in Villa Clara, Entre Ríos, Argentina, because of the constant journeys of his father, a Lithuanian doctor of Jewish origin. Joseph Kessel lived the first years of his childhood in Orenburg, Russia, before the family moved to France...
and the 1967 film of the same name starring Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
, directed by Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
. In French "Belle de Jour" is an expression translating literally as "beauty of [the] day," as opposed to "femme de nuit" or "belle de nuit," woman of the night (common euphemisms for prostitute).
The weblog Belle de Jour: Diary of a London call girl first appeared in October 2003 and won the Guardian newspaper's Best British Weblog 2003, in the second year of the award's existence. There was speculation in the media for several years as to the real identity of the author, whether Belle really was a call girl. Guesses as to who Belle was ranged from Rowan Pelling
Rowan Pelling
Rowan Dorothy Pelling is a British journalist and broadcaster, who first achieved note as the editor of a monthly literary/erotic magazine, entitled the Erotic Review....
to Toby Young
Toby Young
Toby Young, MA, FRSA is a British journalist and the author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, the tale of his stint in New York as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine...
according to The Telegraph. Book contracts, copyright, and author payment were handled not under a real name but by the company Bizrealm Limited in order to maintain anonymity. In 2004 The Sunday Times featured a front-page headline incorrectly identifying Sarah Champion as the author of the blog based on erroneous textual analysis by Don Foster.
According to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
a fellow British blogger guessed her identity in 2003 but kept it secret. He made a page on his blog containing the googlewhack
Googlewhack
A Googlewhack is a type of a contest for finding a Google search query consisting of exactly two words without quotation marks, that returns exactly one hit. A Googlewhack must consist of two actual words found in a dictionary...
of Belle de Jour and Brooke Magnanti that allowed him to see if anyone googled the two names. In 2009 he identified IP addresses originating from Associated Newspapers
Associated Newspapers
Associated Newspapers is a large national newspaper publisher in the UK, which is a subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust. The group was established in 1905 and is currently based at Northcliffe House in Kensington...
that had accessed the page at which point he contacted Magnanti to alert her. Around the same time tabloid reporters had been escorted from the hospital where she worked for breaking into her office.
Revelation of identity
On 15 November 2009, The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
revealed in an interview that the author's real name is Dr Brooke Magnanti, who was 34 years of age at the time. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s Paul Gallagher described it as the revelation of "one of the best kept literary secrets of the decade". The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
s Stephen Adams said it had been "the new millennium's equivalent of the 1980s' search for the golden hare
Masquerade (book)
Masquerade is a children’s book, written and illustrated by Kit Williams, which sparked a treasure hunt by concealing clues to the location of a jewelled golden hare, created and hidden somewhere in Britain by Williams...
". Such was the nature of the secret, Magnanti's work colleagues did not know until one month before she went public, her publishers had been unaware of her true identity until the previous week and her parents found out on that weekend. After signing her first book deal and starting writing articles for newspapers, only two other people were aware of her identity, her agent Patrick Walsh and her accountant, who handled the financial transactions via a shell corporation. Magnanti commented that she had thought a former boyfriend was on the verge of outing her, and later reported him to the police for threats and harassment against her and her partner.
Writing on her blog on the day of the revelation, Magnanti stated:
It feels so much better on this side. Not to have to tell lies, hide things from the people I care about. To be able to defend what my experience of sex work is like to all the sceptics and doubters. Anonymity had a purpose then – it will always have a reason to exist, for writers whose work is too damaging or too controversial to put their names on
A spokesperson for Bristol University stated, "This aspect of Dr Magnanti's past is not relevant to her current role at the university", while her publisher said, "It's a courageous decision for Belle de Jour to come forward with her true identity and we support her decision to do so".
Since unveiling her identity as Belle de Jour, images of Brooke Magnanti appeared in several national newspapers.
Libel case
In June 2011 it was revealed that a man claiming to be an ex-boyfriend of Belle de Jour had filed a lawsuit against the Sunday Times for defamation caused by his mention in the paper. The £100k libel claim, filed by Flight Lieutenant Owen Morris of RAF LossiemouthRAF Lossiemouth
RAF Lossiemouth is a Royal Air Force station to the west of the town of Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland. It is one of the RAF's biggest bases and is currently Britain's main base for Tornado GR4s. From 2013 the Northern QRA force of Typhoon F2 will relocate to Lossiemouth following the closure of...
, was based on two previous interviews with Magnanti in the paper and their versions published online. The claim was made that following her outing, he was widely identified as her former boyfriend and therefore mentions of his purported harassment in the articles had been damaging.
Diary of a London Call Girl
Magnanti says she worked for 14 months as a £300-an-hour prostitute for a London escort agencyEscort agency
Escort agencies are companies that provide escorts for the agency's clients. The agency typically arranges a meeting between one of its escorts and the client at the customer's house or hotel room , or at the escort's residence . Some agencies also provide escorts for longer durations, who may stay...
from 2003, after submitting her PhD thesis. She did so due to lack of funds before her viva voce
Viva voce
Viva voce is a Latin phrase literally meaning "with living voice," but most often translated as "by word of mouth."It may also refer to:*Italian for "live voice."*Voice vote in a deliberative assembly...
at the University of Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
in 2003.
She had previously been a science blogger using her real name and started blogging about sex work under a pseudonym. Diary of a London Call Girl was voted Blog of the Year by The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper in 2003. Awards judge Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling
Michael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre.-Writings:...
called it "Archly transgressive, anonymous hooker is definitely manipulating the blog medium, word by word, sentence by sentence far more effectively than any of her competitors ... She is in a league by herself as a blogger." Shortly after receiving the award she signed with literary agency Conville and Walsh
Conville and Walsh
Conville & Walsh Ltd is a literary agency founded by Patrick Walsh and Clare Conville in 2000, and based in Soho, London. The agency numbers six book agents in a staff of eleven.Conville and Walsh is a full member of the Association of Authors' Agents....
who negotiated a publishing deal with Weidenfeld & Nicholson.
Reviews of the books compared her writing to the works of Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...
and Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...
, and she frequently quotes from the poems of Philip Larkin
Philip Larkin
Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL is widely regarded as one of the great English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century...
. Themes of the blog and books focus on isolation and personae
Persona (psychology)
The Persona, for Jung, was the social face the individual presented to the world - 'a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of the individual'....
. "Solitude as much as sex propels these books ... Belle's prickly disbelief in any lasting togetherness picks up an almost existential heft". She writes in Playing the Game "it's not all about the sex – never has been – it's about the heart of darkness."
Later work
Belle's publisher, Orion Books, printed her first two books as part of its "Non Fiction/Memoir" line. Her third book, however, has been classified as fiction and represents a fictional continuation from the first two. Her books have been published in the UK, US, Portugal, Spain, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, and China.From November 2005 until May 2006, Belle contributed a regular column in The Sunday Telegraph. Since her identity had been revealed she has written about UK libel laws and their effect on science for Comment Is Free
Guardian.co.uk
guardian.co.uk, formerly known as Guardian Unlimited, is a British website owned by the Guardian Media Group. Georgina Henry is the editor...
.
On 25 February 2010 Magnanti appeared on the BBC political affairs programme This Week to discuss the subject of sex education. She is also an occasional guest on The Book Show broadcast on Sky Arts
Sky Arts
Sky Arts and Sky Arts HD is the brand name for a group of art-oriented television channels offering 18 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, movies, documentaries and music...
and has spoken at a number of venues including the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival in conversation with India Knight
India Knight
India Knight is a British journalist and author. She is known for her contribution to the British media, as well as her books: My Life on a Plate, Don't You Want Me?, The Shops, Neris and India's Idiot-Proof Diet and The Thrift Book , all of which are published by Penguin books...
. She has also spoken on internet and forensic identity as part of the Bristol Festival of Ideas
Bristol Festival of Ideas
The Bristol Festival of Ideas is a project established in Bristol, England, which aims to "to stimulate people’s minds and passions with an inspiring programme of discussion and debate"...
.
Scientist
Magnanti's PhD thesis, for which she studied within the University of SheffieldUniversity of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
Department of Forensic Pathology
Forensic pathology
Forensic pathology is a branch of pathology concerned with determining the cause of death by examination of a corpse. The autopsy is performed by the pathologist at the request of a coroner or medical examiner usually during the investigation of criminal law cases and civil law cases in some...
, was entitled Macrobioinformatics: the application of informatics methods to records of human remains. It was submitted in September 2003 and the degree was awarded in 2004. After moving to London and while blogging as Belle de Jour she also worked as a computer programmer in cheminformatics
Cheminformatics
Cheminformatics is the use of computer and informational techniques, applied to a range of problems in the field of chemistry. These in silico techniques are used in pharmaceutical companies in the process of drug discovery...
at InforSense
Discovery Net
Discovery Net is one of the earliest examples of a scientific workflow system allowing users to coordinate the execution of remote services based on Web service and Grid Services standards....
. She blogged about this career at Cosmas.
Magnanti went on to work as a biostatistician in the Newcastle University Paediatric and Lifecourse Epidemiology Research Group (PLERG), researching a possible link between the occurrence of thyroid cancer in under-25s in NE England and radioiodine fallout exposure from Chernobyl
Chernobyl
Chernobyl or Chornobyl is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, in Kiev Oblast, near the border with Belarus. The city had been the administrative centre of the Chernobyl Raion since 1932....
in Ukraine. The paper concludes that while the sustained rise in thyroid carcinoma in Cumbria could be consistent with the fallout patterns, the rising trends in Durham and Northumberland cannot be attributed to this exposure, and there may be other factors influencing the increase.
After her pseudonymous publishing career Belle was identified to be currently working as a research associate in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology at the Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health (BIRCH), part of Bristol University's Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information. Specifically she has been part of the EU-funded Henvinet consortium, researching the policies for assessing the risks of developmental neuropathology from exposure to organophosphates.
In 2011 Brooke Magnanti published a statistical re-analysis criticising the Lilith Report on Lap Dancing and Striptease in the Borough of Camden, a study which had found that sexual crimes have increased after the opening of four lap dancing venues in the area. Magnanti concluded in her paper that the study had significant methodological errors. Furthermore, according to Magnanti's paper, in the decade since lap dancing became legal Camden has seen fewer recorded rapes than other comparable boroughs of London, even those with fewer strip clubs or none. Summaries of the findings were printed in several regional and national papers such as the Guardian and the Camden New Journal.
Further books
Magnanti is currently writing a nonfiction book based on her later blog, Sexonomics, due for publication in early 2012.Secret Diary of a Call Girl
A television series loosely based on the first book was in development with Channel 4Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in the UK, but eventually aired on ITV2
ITV2
ITV2 is a 24 hour, free-to-air entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998, and is available on digital television via satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial platforms. The channel has the...
as Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Secret Diary of a Call Girl is a British television drama broadcast on ITV2 from 2007-2011 based on the blog and books by the pseudonymous "Belle de Jour," starring Billie Piper as Belle, a high-class London call girl. The series was written by Lucy Prebble, who is also known as the author of The...
. The first series aired from 27 September 2007 to 15 November 2007 starring Billie Piper
Billie Piper
Billie Paul Piper is an English singer and actress.She began her career in the late 1990s as a pop singer and then switched to acting. She started in acting and dancing and was talent spotted at the Sylvia Young stage school by Smash Hits magazine who wanted a "face" for their magazine...
as Hannah Baxter
Hannah Baxter
Hannah Baxter is the lead semi-fictional character and protagonist of the British ITV2 television series Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Hannah secretly has a double life as a high-class call girl as her alter ego Belle, for which she acknowledges and comments directly to the audience, throughout each...
(Belle). It is now being shown in the US on Showtime. Piper met Magnanti in the course of preparing for the role but maintained her pseudonymity. A half-hour TV programme covering a meeting and conversation between the two was broadcast on ITV2
ITV2
ITV2 is a 24 hour, free-to-air entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998, and is available on digital television via satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial platforms. The channel has the...
on 25 January 2010. The second series commenced broadcasting in the UK on ITV2
ITV2
ITV2 is a 24 hour, free-to-air entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998, and is available on digital television via satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial platforms. The channel has the...
on 11 September 2008.
The third series began broadcasting in the UK and North America in January 2010. The fourth and final series started broadcasting in the UK on ITV2 in February 2011.
External links
- Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call Girl
- Belle de Jour's page, Conville and WalshConville and WalshConville & Walsh Ltd is a literary agency founded by Patrick Walsh and Clare Conville in 2000, and based in Soho, London. The agency numbers six book agents in a staff of eleven.Conville and Walsh is a full member of the Association of Authors' Agents....
literary agents - On the Construct of Identity – Talk by Brooke Magnanti at the Westminster Skeptics on 7 June 2010 (audio)
- Belle de Jour on the Book Show – Interview of Brooke Magnanti at Sky ArtsBritish Sky BroadcastingBritish Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
(video)