Wanting You to Want Me by Bronwen Parker-Rhodes & Emily Dinsdale - Non Fiction - Hardback

Details:
Condition: BRAND NEW
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781784884666
Publisher: Hardie Grant Books (UK)
Age Range: Adult

Overview:
Wanting You to Want Me is a searingly honest work of narrative non-fiction that pulls back the curtain on London's strip club scene. Compiled by journalist Emily Dinsdale and filmmaker Bronwen Parker-Rhodes, both of whom worked as dancers themselves, the book gathers first-person, anonymous testimonies direct from the women behind the industry. Rather than sensationalising, it treats its subjects with empathy and nuance, exploring agency, economics, and emotional labour. Illustrated with original photography, this hardback is a compelling read for anyone drawn to memoir, social history, or candid explorations of work, identity, and womanhood in modern Britain.

About the Book:
Told entirely through anonymous first-person accounts, Wanting You to Want Me assembles years of conversations Dinsdale and Parker-Rhodes had with dancers across London's strip clubs, many gathered while the authors themselves worked inside the industry. The stories move fluidly between settings: gossip and camaraderie in the changing rooms, the choreography of trust and performance on the dance floor, and the far more complicated intimacy of the private booth, where boundaries between client and dancer blur in unexpected ways. Some voices recall the financial precarity that drew them into the work; others describe surprising friendships, moments of dark humour, and a fierce, hard-won sense of control over their own bodies and earnings. The collection resists easy narratives of victimhood or glamour, instead presenting a textured, sometimes contradictory picture of an industry rarely allowed to speak for itself. Original photography threads through the text, grounding the words in a visual sense of place and person. What emerges is less an exposé than a document of labour, resilience and the everyday emotional intelligence required to navigate a job built on performing desire. Readers interested in social history, gender studies, sex work advocacy, or simply unflinching real-life storytelling will find plenty to sit with here. It is a book that challenges assumptions on nearly every page, refusing to tidy its subjects into either tragic or triumphant boxes, and instead letting contradiction and complexity stand. The result is an unusually intimate piece of British social non-fiction.

Key Benefits:

• Gathers genuine, anonymous first-person testimonies from women working in London's strip clubs.
• Written by two authors with real insider experience, lending rare authenticity and trust.
• Illustrated with original photography that grounds the stories in a strong sense of place.
• Explores themes of agency, empathy, work and identity without judgement or sensationalism.
• Perfect for readers of memoir, social history and gender studies, or as a thought-provoking gift.
• Brand new hardback edition, built to last and to be shared or re-read.

About the Author:
Emily Dinsdale is a journalist and Bronwen Parker-Rhodes a filmmaker; both spent time working as dancers in London strip clubs before collaborating on this project. That lived experience gave them rare access and trust among the women whose stories fill these pages, allowing testimonies to be gathered with an intimacy an outside reporter could rarely achieve. Their combined backgrounds in journalism and filmmaking shape the book's structure, blending documentary rigour with a strong visual and narrative sensibility, resulting in a collection that feels both journalistically grounded and deeply personal throughout.

Why You'll Love This Book:
Raw, empathetic and utterly absorbing, this collection gives voice to women rarely heard from directly, told with genuine insider trust and free of judgement or sensationalism. Fans of frank memoir, social history and documentary-style non-fiction will find it hard to put down. It also makes a genuinely thought-provoking, conversation-starting gift for curious, open-minded readers.

Please Note: This listing is for the UK edition with ISBN 9781784884666, and the cover shown matches the UK edition.