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Playing the Game
 
 
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Playing the Game (Hardcover)

by Belle de Jour (Author)
3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
Price: £8.44 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

Playing the Game + The Further Adventures of a London Call Girl + The Intimate Adventures Of A London Call Girl
Price For All Three: £17.60

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Orion (16 Oct 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1409100472
  • ISBN-13: 978-1409100478
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 13.8 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 268,036 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'Playing the Game keeps the reader entertained and interested, thanks to Belle's quick wit and and straight talking' (LONDON LITE )

'Belle's first foray into fiction still finds the former call girl on sparkling and outrageous form, as the escapades become even more risky.' (THE MIRROR )

'impossible to put down.' (CITY AM )

'Belle does post-coital camaraderie almost better than anything that comes before.' (Boyd Tonkin THE INDEPENDENT )

'An extraordinary number of call-girl memoirs have surfaced recently ... Belle differs from these sexcapades in the most fundamental way, however, in that she can actually write. ... she is brilliant - frank,witty and observant ... Whoever you are, Belle, you can give up the day job and keep writing.' (Francesca Segal THE OBSERVER )


Product Description

Game over? Belle is starting to wonder if she should call time on the call girl business...get a day job, a life free from secrets and have a 'normal' relationship with the Boy. But will Belle cope with the nine-to-five, a staggering decline in her underwear budget and no more paid sex? As Belle explores life and love after the game, her story is frank, smart and refreshingly honest. Punctuated with advice, anecdotes and reflections in her inimitable voice, this is a novel of secrets and lies, scabrous wit and more than a little lust.
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Playing the Game
55% buy the item featured on this page:
Playing the Game 3.1 out of 5 stars (8)
£8.44
The Intimate Adventures Of A London Call Girl
18% buy
The Intimate Adventures Of A London Call Girl 3.6 out of 5 stars (60)
£4.59
Belle de Jour's Guide to Men
12% buy
Belle de Jour's Guide to Men 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
£5.98
The Further Adventures of a London Call Girl
12% buy
The Further Adventures of a London Call Girl 2.9 out of 5 stars (23)
£4.57
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.1 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not A Novel, Morer A Third "Intimate Adventure", 17 Nov 2008
By PoochJD (Hertfordshire, England) - See all my reviews
I borrowed this book from my local library, after having bought and read both of Belle's previous works, and was slightly baffled to see this labelled as a work of fiction.

She claims that this is a story about how her and her mates may or may not have turned out. However, having devoured the book in almost five straight hours, and basing my knowledge of Belle on her previous works and Weblog, I get the suspicious feeling that this is not fictional, but a third "Intimate Adventure Of A London Call Girl"! In other words, there's more truth here than fiction!

If you like the first two books, then this pretty much continues Belle's day-to-day journey through her friendships, her family and the occasional client. It's by no means a difficult book to read, and although sometimes it can be a little irritating when words are spelled incorrectly, (and in these cases, a deliberate attempt to appear trendy - like adding the letter "z" instead of "s" onto the end of some words), you feel that Belle is being told to write this way, rather then her being allowed to simply write how she wants to write.

This is not a negative review of the book! Far from it. In fact, I really enjoyed it! It's rare for me to devour any book in so short a time period, but the fact I stayed up until the small hours of Sunday morning to complete it, rather than waiting until the next day, shows that it is a fun read.

I just wish that Belle could give us more insight into her and her world, because they are the most interesting and controversial aspects. I like reading what she really thinks about the people around her: her friends A2, A3 and A4, her family, and her clients. These are the most intriguing parts, and what make her books so exciting to me.

I'm less interested in what her characters "say". This book is set-out in more of a fictional way, with some pages of dialogue, as if the characters are speaking. Yet, the more you read on, the more you think this is simply a different way of Belle writing her diaries. And, in all honesty, this is nothing more than a third diary, and not a fictional tale.

Whilst not the best of her works (for which the first one will always be the best), this is still worth a punt. There's less explicit detail, than in some of her previous works, so it's not so "adult" in tone. However, it's certainly not child-friendly. Discussions of certain sexual proclivities, mean this is still for mature readers!

All-in-all a fun book, and now I eagerly await Volume Four.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Game over?, 1 Nov 2008
By Cat (UK) - See all my reviews
I should start by saying I absolutely loved Belle's first book. So much so, it inspired me to start writing my own blog - not as successful as Belle's, mind! I enjoyed the second book hugely too, and was excited to read on Belle's website that there was a third book on the horizon. Perhaps the fact that I'd not read any reviews of it should have rung alarm bells...

I understand that this book is a novel, and looks at what might have been. Belle's wit and warmth still shine through, but the pace is much slower than the previous books, and instead of tearing through it in a night, it's taken me several days to read - I've picked it up and put it down, unlike the others which I just couldn't be parted from. Bits of this book seem incredibly familiar, and I'm sure they've been lifted from the second book, which made me feel a bit cheated.

All in all, this was an enjoyable enough read, but won't be a book I'll go back to. Perhaps Belle's success means she doesn't need to try as hard now, but this was slightly disappointing.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Amusing, but slow, reprise of Book 2, 30 Jan 2009
By Sarah (London, England) - See all my reviews
Playing the Game
Firstly, I'll confirm that this is an entertaining, light and often funny read, but, and it's a big but, it is completely evident that Belle's just sold out and slapped this book together for the money!

If you've read the first and second Belle de Jour books, don't bother picking this one up. It's slower in pace, not any different in diary structure or topics (although claims to be a fiction novel, not a diary), and is simply a less-rude, toned-down sequel to the sequel. The biggest rub is that the majority of 'Playing the Game' seems simply cut and paste from the entire of 'Further adventures...'!

No, really, I actually thought I'd got a publisher's second where someone had mistakenly put the wrong cover on the book when I read it!

It lacks Belle's previous sass and biting wit, and has a rather disappointing ending tacked on to boot. I won't be holding my breath for the next one. She should go back to the real job she was good at and get some new material methinks.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good read but so many typos!
I'm a first time reader of Belle's books. I got it as a holiday / by the pool book and it certainly did the job. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. A. G. Pierre-traves

3.0 out of 5 stars More like Off the Game
So Belle has stopped working as a call girl - good for her! Although that does make this book basically all about her rather mundane sounding office job and complaining about her... Read more
Published 6 months ago by S. Tillotson

5.0 out of 5 stars Slapping Satire
It seems to me that "Belle" - the "Anonymous" nom de plume - is not and cannot be one person.

The story shared by 'Playing the Game' and 'Further Adventures of a... Read more
Published 8 months ago by J. Heifetz

1.0 out of 5 stars Sounds a bit familiar?
I absolutely loved Belle's first book- I remember buying it on a Sunday morning, taking it home to read and eagerly rushing out the next morning to buy the second. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Anonymous

4.0 out of 5 stars Fictional? Who knows... regardless it's a great read.
Marketed as Belle's first fictional novel, rather than a diary, Playing the Game simply reads as a continuation of her first two books. Read more
Published 10 months ago by L. Felthouse

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