Haberdashery Girls... An excerpt from my forthcoming book of interviews: Where Babies Come From. I asked people, ‘How were you told the facts of life?’ And, ‘What information were you given?’ Here is Belinda, who used to be an escort. She is now in her eighties. My sister read about Dutch caps. We looked at Old Masters paintings and wondered how having those funny big white hats on their heads would stop women getting pregnant. In British Guiana, we had native servants who would do the deed al fresco au natural. From the age of five, I was playing 'sex' with my dolls. They’d have their dolls’ tea party, a recitation lesson, then I’d have them mount each other. When we came back to England, I had a nanny. Katrin was fresh from the convent. She was all mummy could get for me. I expect it was a time of general strikes. Mummy would send Katrin for breaks back to the convent meanwhile sending me for remedial elocution. This would happen when I’d said one too many ‘tinks’,
Just a flaneur, flanning away.