Brooke Magnanti born 5 November [ 1 ] is an American-born naturalised British [ 2 ] former research scientist, blogger, and writer, who, until her identity was revealed in November , was known by the pen name Belle de Jour. 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.
Her first two books were UK top 10 best-sellers in the nonfiction hardback and nonfiction paperback lists. In November , fearing her real identity was about to come out, Magnanti revealed her real name and occupation as a child health scientist. She is honoured in BBC's Women in and She entered university at the age of 16, going on to receive a B. Relocating to the United Kingdom, Magnanti studied for a master's degree in genetic epidemiology and PhD in informatics , epidemiology , and forensic science from the University of Sheffield in England.
In the film, "Belle de Jour" is an expression translating literally as "daytime beauty", as Deneuve's character frequented the brothel during the daytime, when her husband was absent from home. The expression is adapted from the French phrase "belle de nuit", which translates as "lady of the night", i. The weblog Belle de Jour: Diary of a London call girl first appeared in October [ 12 ] and won the Guardian newspaper's Best British Weblog , in the second year of the award's existence.
In The Sunday Times featured a front-page headline incorrectly identifying Sarah Champion as the author of the blog based on erroneous textual analysis by Donald Foster. According to The Guardian a fellow British blogger guessed her identity in 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 he identified IP addresses originating from Associated Newspapers that had accessed the page at which point he contacted Magnanti to alert her. On 15 November , The Sunday Times revealed in an interview that the author's real name is Brooke Magnanti; [ 3 ] she was 34 years of age at the time.
