Dawn Annandale is a very attractive woman, beautifully turned out wearing a smart two-piece suit. It is nearly impossible to believe that this woman, with her Home Counties accent worked as an escort, but she did. Dawn was on the verge of losing her house, having to take her six children out of their schools and change everything that was familiar to them. Rather than doing that she turned to prostitution and for three years led a double life: the perfect mother by day and an escort called Elizabeth who would fulfil your every fantasy for £150 an hour, by night. Seven years later Dawn has written her story, admittedly for monetary reasons, but it is a fascinating read. She kindly took some time out to answer a few of the Techie's questions.
Turning to prostitution to support your family is a pretty desperate measure isn't it?
It is really difficult to try and explain how you feel about your kids and I think things click into place when you have a child. My children to me are the be all and end all and I don't mean to use an old cliché but I would do absolutely anything for them. You would give your life for them and that's the end of it. They are my responsibility and they come first and that's the end of it really.
How old is your eldest now?
She's nineteen
So they all know what went on?
Yes, they do know now. Obviously when it all happened they had no idea, they didn't know for ages afterwards, but now they all know. I didn't take the decision to write the book lightly, but children need to be fed and watered. I can't dress it up in any other way. I wrote the book to support the family, there's no other reason for it. I worked for three years as a prostitute to support my family and then when I stopped working I had a six-month breathing space and thought, 'right, now what am I going to do?' So then I ran an escort agency for about three and a half years. It came to a sticky point in it and I thought I don't want to be involved in this whole world any more, but the kids still need to eat and school fees need to be paid, everything else has to be done, so now what do I do? Go back on the game? I don't think so! Loads of people said to me 'this is an absolutely fascinating story, write a book' - and I thought, 'ok I hope it works'.
Throughout Call Me Elizabeth you refer to the books you are reading, so it mustn't have been a huge leap for you - you did have amazing subject matter!
It is amazing subject matter and it's also very different and I don't think I'm particularly what people expect, I'm not people's preconceived idea of a prostitute. I am terribly Home Counties and jolly hockey sticks and all that sort of thing so it's not really the peroxide blonde, leopard skin print-wearing woman. The other thing is a lot of the girls on the game are fantastically beautiful Eastern Europeans who can't speak a word of English or it is the heroin addicts on the street corners. So people are fascinated by mummies who will do the PTA stuff during the day, bake cakes and things and then go off and have sex with six different guys that night.
It was two different lives. It was exhausting. The way that my mother brought us up was all about standards darling, all this stiff upper lipped crap and I would iron at 4 o'clock in the morning rather than let one of my kids go to school without an ironed shirt. My friend Judy said to me 'for christsake get a life' but it is something that is sort of pushed into you about keeping up with everything, making sure everything is right. There were some mornings that I would wake up to take the kids to school and I was so tired I could just cry, but it had to be done.
Your husband Paul was oblivious to everything - did he have any idea?
No he didn't. We have privacy laws in England though and I am not allowed to talk about him. But he was absolutely no use whatsoever and at the same time I don't want anyone else to think, 'she got herself into that mess, she only has herself to blame'. Absolutely I do completely hold my hand up and say it was my fault, I was responsible for this extravagant lifestyle. Circumstances didn't help particularly, they compounded the problem; you know, the interest rate rise, losing the discounted period on the mortgage. Yes, my children did go to a nice private school.
You did buy new school uniforms every year…
Yes I did, it was crazy. You can't live the champagne lifestyle on orange juice money. It doesn't work and everything was bound to come crashing down at some stage, but you know bills came in and I used to think, 'God not another bloody bill, stick it in the drawer in the kitchen and forget about it'.
When I did actually sit down and open them there was more than £35,000 of debt and it was imminent. This is what I've been trying to explain to people. it wasn't something that could be solved by taking the children out of their nice schools and selling the house. It was NOW, it was this week, it was that bailiff is going to come back and take the furniture, the gas was going to be cut off, the electricity, I had a repossession hearing for the house - it was that bad. So that's why it had to be something drastic and I needed instant money. I didn't have anything I could sell. In fact I just couldn't think of anything else. I needed money, I needed a lot of it and I needed it now. So I did it.
Was it the ad in the paper that gave you the idea?
Yes, I saw the ad in this London newspaper I picked up at the tube and I just thought, 'there it is'. My boss was away at the time and he'd left me some work, which I got through, and I sat there flicking through this paper thinking 'maybe an evening job' - I don't know what I thought. Then I saw the ad and it just jumped up at me. I saw it, rang it and that was it. The only thing I worried about - not any of the moral things or anything like that - all I worried about was, 'am I attractive enough, are my boobs too saggy?'
When I went to that first client, I really did try and get into the bath while he was turning around. I remember this one guy looking at me and saying 'God you're gorgeous' and I was thinking 'this is a push em up bra, suck em in knickers, the lights are dim, get a life love!'
Your clients liked you because you could hold a conversation and you would sit down and talk to them, you weren't what people expected at all were you?
I did very quickly realise that, and I'm not trying to blow my own trumpet, I don't think I'm typical of who goes into it. I wasn't at all what people expected. A lot of the girls are not terribly well educated and I realised very quickly if you just invested a little more thought you got the regular clients, which guaranteed you money and you might be a bit more comfortable with them.
You did have a problem with clients falling in love with you didn't you?
I did, I mean it makes me sound like I think I'm like Claudia Schiffer, I don't think it was me, I think it was the idea or perception of me. Somebody well educated, well dressed, well spoken who will have sex whenever you want. Some of my clients had fantastic careers, they had everything, they just didn't have a relationship, but at the click of their fingers or a phone call this woman would turn up and be perfect. I was perfect to them, I was attentive, consenting, everything they wanted for that short period of time, I did.
It must have been so hard having to pretend that you were enjoying the sex?
Oh yes, I could do When Harry met Sally! Standing on my head I could do that. I did all the time and I know that guys got a lot more out of it if they thought I was enjoying it too.
It says a lot about the type of man David is (Dawn's current partner) that he was able to forgive you?
Well he is completely pragmatic and understanding. What bothered him was that I lied to him. He understood it was a job, he didn't want me to keep doing it but he was very hurt that I lied to him. If I had known him then, the way I know him now I would have told him straight up. It has taken him a long time to get over it and to trust me again.
So what about the rest of your family how did they react?
My father's suicide left our family in tatters, there are so many emotions. My brothers feel completely guilty about not knowing about the abuse, not being able to do anything about it. My sister feels guilty that it was me and not her. So there are all these contrasting emotions and mixed feelings. To everyone else he was there, Dad, he was a monster but they loved him. So you hate him but you're grieving for him as well. I remember standing at his funeral and thinking, 'what bloody mixed up feelings I am having here'. My sister tried not to cry at his funeral because she thought I'd hate her. So none of my family sees each other, it's tragic but we don't talk at all. It's really, really sad.
It must have been very emotional writing this book.
It was, to be honest I don't think I ever dealt with anything; while I was doing it, I just had to do it. So when I was writing things down for the book, there were a lot of dark moments and me thinking, 'God I did that'.
I suppose the book delves into things that you don't talk about. It also makes you think, 'would I do that?' When we were thinking about what we were going to call it, one of the titles I suggested was, For The Grace of God, because I do believe that for the grace of God I survived. What I did is the end of the line, the absolute end of the line and not everyone would be able to do it.
So what happens next?
Well I have a few approaches to turn the book into a film so hopefully that will go ahead; I think it's a great British story. Unfortunately whoever plays me will have to have lots of stretch marks!
Dawn Annandale was in conversation with The Techie
