Belle de Jour's identity revealed

One of the great literary mysteries of the noughties (or should that be 'naughties') was cleared up last week, when we finally learned the identity of high-class escort 'Belle de Jour'.

Belle's identity has been the subject of huge speculation over the years. She started escorting for a high-end dating service when she needed cash to complete her PhD studies. After blogging about her dating adventures, she was signed up by a literary agent and her life became the stuff of bestsellers. But until now we never knew that dating legend Belle was in fact Dr Brooke Magnati, a 34-year-old research scientist.

Belle was able to earn £300 as an escort for the dating service, far more than the average student earns flipping burgers. After moving to London from Sheffield, she found herself unable to pay the city's extortionate rent. A stint as a computer programmer had proved far from lucrative, and the escort agency was something she could fit in around her studies.

Belle worked in the adult dating services for fourteen months, and has no regrets, although her literary work has been criticised for glamorising prostitution.

At the other end of the scale, Stan Collymore's blog-to-book Bete de Jour is all about a self-confessed ugly man trying to bag a woman in the ferocious, dog-eat-dog London dating arena. From school reunions to excruciating chatroom sex, we follow Stan's dating adventures as he attempts to make himself a bit more presentable to the opposite sex.

In this world of online dating and internet romance, it makes sense that techies and bloggers are using the internet to diarise their sex lives - or lack of them. Documenting their every chat-up line, knock-back and dating disaster, these chroniclers of the twenty-first century dating landscape help us to feel less alone in a world where fewer and fewer of us are finding lasting love.