My name is Juliet, and I'm a prostitute and dominatrix based in London (zone 2—not central, not suburbs). I'm in my late 30s, white, and well educated, and my background is borderline working/middle class. I operate at the medium price bracket (from £120 ($214; €174) an hour) as opposed to the £30-40 for 30 minutes in a massage parlour or £250 plus charged by most outcall agencies. I use an appointment system (as opposed to spending the whole day at my “office” and seeing people at short notice). All these details alter the kind of experience one has of working in the sex industry—how much of your time it takes up, how flexible you have to be, how much you can plan, and the overheads it takes to stay in business.

I love my job. I work for myself, at a wage I set, and I get to make people happy—very happy—for a living. One of the many good things about prostitution is that there's very little bullshit, …