Brooke Magnanti (Belle de Jour)

Since she started her award-winning blog A Diary of a London Call Girl in 2003, journalists have been speculating as to the true identity of Belle De Jour. She penned five highly successful books, chronicling in hilarious detail her life as a high class prostitute, and was played by Billie Piper in a spin-off TV series, all the while managing to remain anonymous.

Belle de Jour decided to come clean to the journalist India Knight, revealing her true identity as Dr Brooke Magnanti, a research scientist at Bristol University. The Book Show was Brooke's very first television interview.

Belle De Jour's Guide to Men
Belle de Jour is a woman who's met men of every conceivable type. She knows what they want, and how to give it to them. And outside the one-hour appointments, she's also had her heart broken, picked herself back up, put on another stunning pair of shoes and carried on - so she knows a thing or two about love as well as sex. So sit back, relax and listen to what your friends are too polite to tell you. About when you need or want a man, and when you damn well don't. Whether you want to find men, lure them, ditch them, hitch them - here's the lowdown. Funny, surprising and always entertaining, Belle de Jour's Guide to Men is must-have reading for every woman out there.

If you want to read an extract of Belle's Playing The Game, visit LoveReading.co.uk