I leave the confessional, light as air. I am absolved, my penance is a joy, to light a candle, kneel on cold, hard stone before the Our Lady’s altar, to pray, pray to her, the perpetual virgin, clothed in soft light blue that shimmers in the morning sunlight that streams through the cupola. I light my candle, I kneel, look up in supplication at Our … Continue reading IMMACULATE MARY
ROZALIA Czernowitz – Austria-Hungary 1910 Oberkriminalrat Rudolf Krenek hated Czernowitz even more than he hated whores,the ones he controlled as much as the ones who worked for other pimps, the ones he hararassed and arrested when bribes were not paid on time. There were plenty of whores in the city, plenty of girls who were lured away by promises of glamorous work and easy money in Ottoman Istanbul … Continue reading City of Whores – Part One
Our eyes met across the hotel bar. I walked over to him. “I am Danielle and mine’s a Prosecco.” “Pleased to meet you Danielle.” He smiled and motioned to the barman, at the same time inviting me to sit on the stool next to him. A flute of prosecco with a strawberry was place in front of me. He picked up his beer and we … Continue reading Grave
I am a nun. I am a woman. I feel. I bleed. Underneath my coarse brown habit I burn with passion for my eternal lover, Jesus Christ, the man for whom I chose the life of bare walls, a hard narrow bed, the five o’clock rising bell, the cold chapel where i spend hours on my knees in adoration until the pain becomes unbearable. Every … Continue reading Magnificat
Heraclitus wrote that you can never step into the same river twice. I have been thinking about this a lot recently while reading Olga Tokarczuk’s fragmentary travel novel Bieguni. The English translation is called Flights which is not a particularly accurate translation. There are an journeys in this book, journeys of different kinds, journeys by train, by boat, by plane, journeys in time. Journeys of … Continue reading All the Sex We Never Had, All the Places We Never Went
“Right on the edge of fear was where trust could grow” Cherise Sinclair When I was a boy I wanted to be an amoeba. I liked the idea of being a creature that didn’t have to bother with sex. I adored Debbie Harry, I masturbated till I was sore, I took my mother’s magazines to bed, I picked a model from the fashion pages and … Continue reading Anita
This is Part Two of a story which began with Lessons in Love which you can read here. Some years ago I was in therapy and learned the principle of mindfulness. My next encounter with Fiona put me in mind of these. A week after my first visit I arrived at her house, carrying the 400 lines neatly folded and sealed in an A4 envelope … Continue reading Lessons in Life
“That” said Fiona Howe, “is the most misogynistic thing I have heard in a long long time. Do you actually know how old I am?” I shuffled my feet in embarrassment and struggled for an answer. “Well I thought erm maybe…” “I am 72. Is that a problem for you?” “Well no” “Or maybe it is. You were thinking about how much older I am … Continue reading Lessons in Love
Skin, I once read, is the heaviest organ in the human body. The thought disgusted me. I saw myself being peeled to the muscular redness of the grotesque cadavers you see in medical schools, my skin an amorphous pale mass plopping onto silver scales, all two and a half kilos of the stuff that holds me together. It disgusted me. My skin disgusts me. For … Continue reading Skin Deep
The card looked official. It said “A Message from Direct Mail Services. Your special delivery will arrive tomorrow at 12 noon. As this is an official court document it is a legal requirement that you be at home to receive the delivery.” The card has a very imposing looking stamp with a crown and the wording Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service. I held it … Continue reading Special Delivery
Sex Work and Human Rights
Not your fluffy feminism
60 something nomadic traveller
The Sex Industry Blog - For Media Enquiries please call us on 020 7175 0180 or email dearharlot@gmail.com
26 years of previously repressed melodrama
celebrating women and exploring sexuality
A Kiss is Just a Kiss -
Madam Becky Adams. Award Winning Author & Keynote Speaker 'The Art of Seductive Customer Servicing.' - Profitable liaisons with the customer sub-conscious.
Eve's Temptations 