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Charlie was no angel
Paul R Taylor17/ 8/2006
Priceless is the amazing true story of Charlie Daniels' redemption from life as a vice queen. Here she tells Paul R Taylor of her journey from poverty, single motherhood, prostitution, and a brutal stabbing to success as a brothel madam, author and businesswoman
CHARLIE Daniels turned to prostitution to feed her baby
daughter. Almost 20 years later she gave up the game to become her
mum again.
In those two decades, she went from walking the streets of
Sheffield to become one of the most successful madams in the
country.
She owned several businesses, with up to 50 girls working for her,
organised swingers' parties and was whisked around the world by
rich clients who showered her with expensive gifts.
Along the way she was raped, kidnapped, beaten, imprisoned for
stabbing another prostitute in the eye with a screwdriver,
discovered the truth about her father's murder and even got married
for a day.
Now still only 36, chatty and charming, Charlie has published her
remarkable story in her autobiography Priceless, including her time
working in Manchester's brothels in the early Nineties.
"It's the story of a young girl who gets pregnant at 17 and thinks
it is all going to be rosy in the garden," says Charlie.
"She sees the packs of nappies with mother and daughter smiling and
everything looking middle class and thinks her life is going to be
like that.
"But in reality she lives on the 13th floor of a tower block with
scraps of carpet and no tokens for the electric. She finally runs
out of nappies and milk and ends up on the beat.
"A client offers her £10 for a grope basically and it wasn't a big
leap. She'd been very promiscuous. Taking £10 was easy and she
didn't look back."
At 19 Charlie set up her own escort service and was running a
brothel by the age of 21, although these businesses were
small-scale compared to the vice empire she created after leaving
prison.
"The book is unique," she says, "because it goes right through the
ranks from the streets to the classy end of the market, because
there is a hierarchy."
While running the brothel, she was beaten with a baseball bat by a
gang of prostitutes and she snapped, later walking into a pub and
stabbing one of them.
"It was really painful to write about. I must tell you that the
proper detail that is in that chapter about me doing the stabbing
came at the eleventh hour.
"I had written, rewritten and rewritten that piece and skirted
around the actual part when the screwdriver came down.
"It terrified me so much that I could do that - I wouldn't allow my
thoughts to go back to that moment.
"It wasn't until I heard the statements read out in court that I
actually knew what I had done.
"I didn't have any recollection of shutting the pub doors and
putting the huge bolt across, none.
"I wasn't in my normal state because I walked into the pub like a
zombie with a screwdriver and didn't make a sound."
As grim as much of her story is, Charlie accepts responsibility for
her actions and she refuses to be cast as a victim.
"A lot of prostitute books are marketed as victim/misery books,
with a clichéd cartoon character on the front cover looking sorry
for themselves.
"I've accepted responsibility for my actions, no matter how grim
the result. I'm proud of the fact that the honesty comes
through."
While in prison, notorious Charlie turned her life around, winning
a literary prize and gaining a place at university to study art
history.
But, realising she couldn't afford to go, she went back into
business with a vengeance.
"I liked writing the bit where I came out of prison. I think that
was one of the biggest turnaround points for me.
"To go from going to prison and being hated, spat on and bullied to
having a fantastic send-off and looking to the future - I quite
liked that."
Then, from 1998 to 2002, after escaping the poverty of her past,
she retired from a life of vice and sold off her businesses in an
effort to rebuild her relationship with her daughter Lucy. In her
teens, Charlie had asked her own foster mother to look after Lucy,
but they are now reunited and live together in Leeds.
And Charlie has again turned life to her advantage, penning her
autobiography and becoming a consultant on everything from
prostitution to plastic surgery for the media, police, government
and other bodies.
She is now writing fiction, hopes to host her own late night radio
show and also campaigns on issues of prostitution and women in
jail.
"The industry is damaging to a woman on three levels. Two are
obvious - mental and physical - but it's also damaging to the
psyche or soul. I don't stand here and say I represent prostitutes,
but I want to support them and help them. I'm not ashamed of my
past."
Priceless (Hodder & Stoughton) costs £12.99 and is out now.
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