CARNAL NATION

One of the blogosphere's most famous mysteries was solved this morning, when Belle de Jour's identity was revealed in London's Sunday Times.  Her popular Diary of a London Call Girl was named the Blog of the Year by the Guardian in 2003, and its popularity led to a book deal; Belle has written two memoirs and a book of fiction, all while keeping her identity tightly under wraps.   Her agent and publisher didn't even know who she was, and her identity remained a secret even after her memoir was loosely adapted into the television series Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

Turns out Belle's real name is Dr. Brooke Magnanti, and she's a 32-year old developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology specialist at the Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health. (Her large number of degrees is impressive, but more so is the fact that she had a job with that many words in the title and also had time to write so much.)  She gave up escorting in 2004, but she's still writing extensively, and others are quick to praise the quality of her prose.

Magnanti told her fans that she went to the Times willingly, though she indicated in a Twitter message today that the Daily Mail also knew of her existance; Magnanti learned about their plans to write out the other day, when a reporter had to be escorted from the premises of the Child Heath Center.

Though the blog is fairly adult in content, mainstream media are picking up on the story, too.  Even The Washington Post tech blog covered the story this morning.