Everything about the life of Belle De Jour seems fabulous. Days spent shopping for designer clothes; nights spent in five-star luxury.   Fantastic shoes, an abundance of champagne and the strangely intoxicating appeal of living a secret life.

Of course there is the business of having sex with strangers, but is that a small price to pay for a life of luxury?

The story of Belle De Jour, supposedly the pseudonym of a high-class sex worker, began in 2003 when she began recording her escapades as a working girl on her own online blog.

Belle described herself as a twenty-something, well-educated graduate who claimed to love sex and would rather work as an escort than an office temp.  Her colourful stories of sexy underwear, champagne-fuelled liaisons and expensive hotels earned her an army of followers, and painted a glamorous picture of a previously sordid looking industry.

Despite speculation that Belle was the fictional creation of a professional writer, public interest in her story continued and her diaries were soon published in a best-selling book.

Several sequels and a TV adaptation for ITV 2 starring Billie Piper followed, as well as a string of copy-cat stories including Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, Diary of a Married Call Girl, Confessions of a Working Girl and Confessions of the Seductress Next Door.

Becoming a working-girl, once widely considered the most unsavoury of occupations, has suddenly become a career option not to be disregarded so willingly. Far from being seen as victims using the sale of their bodies as a last resort, call girls now appear to be viewed as strong, independent feminists who embody the 21^st century woman.

Speaking about the television series, Piper herself commented:  “This is the story of a witty, well-educated girl who enjoys having a lot of sex and likes being paid a lot of money for it.  She makes no apologies for it. It is her choice and she is very much in control.”

But, despite Belle’s glamourisation of the industry, what is the reality of the world’s oldest profession?

In the UK alone, there are an estimated 80, 000 women who are sex workers, the vast majority of whom do so to fund drug problems or support their families. Two-thirds of sex workers claim to have experienced ‘client violence’ including rape.

According to the Home Office, at least 60 sex workers have been murdered in the past 10 years and while the average conviction rate for murder is 75%, when it is the murder of a sex worker, this falls to 26%.

In other European countries, female sex workers experience high levels of HIV infection.  A study in the Netherlands in 2002-2003 showed that 7% of sex workers were infected with HIV. Similarly, 5% of immigrant sex workers in Spain, mostly immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, were found to be living with HIV.

Possible solutions to the problem are a continual point of contention, with several politicians arguing that the answer may be to legalise brothels to decrease the prevalence of lone sex workers.  Others have suggested that men should be convicted for paying for sex, rather than punishing the women who offer it.

With the global recession continuing and unemployment on the increase, there are also fears that more young women will turn to the sex industry for cash, many under the misconception that they are entering a world that is exciting, fun and safe.

While the realities of the sex industry continue, the influx of naughty-but-nice accounts of life as a call-girl, are offering a skewed view of a particularly bleak landscape.

Kay, a 32-year old former sex-worker, claimed in an interview with the Living Scotsman, that the glamourisation of the sex industry on TV and in books is extremely damaging.

“It’s so harmful, because it sews seeds in the minds of young women: “If I’m ever in trouble, if I ever need to pay off my credit card …”

“What they don’t realise is the damage that selling your body does to a woman.  The job was meant to be a temporary measure, but I came to rely on it.   It will make you lose some of your dignity for good. People say they hate their job, but it’s not like being penetrated for a living. You know how bad it can feel when your personal space is invaded accidentally? Well, it’s a million times worse when you choose to let people do that to you.”