Belle de Jour (writer)

Belle de Jour is the "pen name" of a former London call girl, Brooke Magnanti (born 5 November 1975). Under this name she maintains a successful blog, "Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call Girl" which by 2003 had been selected by "The Guardian" as its blog of the year and has had two books published in both the UK and US.
Magnanti was born and raised in Clearwater, Florida. Her father is Italian American; her mother is Jewish American. Magnanti became a British citizen in 2013. She is married and lives in Lochaber in the Scottish Highlands. She is a former prostitute.
The name recalls the 1928 novel "Belle de Jour" by Joseph Kessel and the 1967 movie, "Belle de Jour", starring Catherine Deneuve, directed by Luis Buñuel.
In French "Belle de Jour" means "beauty of [the] day," as opposed to "femme de nuit" or "belle de nuit," women of the night (common euphemisms for prostitutes).