'When you are fifteen years old and destitute, too unskilled to work and too young to claim unemployment benefit, your body is all you have left to sell.'

Rachel Moran came from a troubled family background. Taken into State care at fourteen, she became homeless and got involved in prostitution aged fifteen. For the next seven years Rachel worked as a prostitute, isolated, drug-addicted, outside of society.

Rachel's experience was one of violence, loneliness, and relentless exploitation and abuse. Her story reveals the emotional cost of selling your body night after night in order to survive-loss of innocence, loss of self-worth and a loss of connection from mainstream society that makes it all the more difficult to escape the prostitution world.

At the age of 22 she managed, with remarkable strength, to liberate herself from that life. She went to university, gained a degree and forged a new life, but she always promised that one day she would complete this book. This is Rachel Moran's story, written in her own words and in her own name.

About the Author

Rachel Moran grew up in North Dublin city. From a troubled family background, she was fourteen when she was taken into state care. She became homeless and got involved in prostitution at aged fifteen, working in Dublin and other Irish cities for the following seven years.

In 1998 at the age of 22, she liberated herself from that life. At 24 she got on the path to further education, gaining a degree in journalism from Dublin City University, where she won the Hybrid Award for excellence in journalism.

She speaks internationally on prostitution and sex-trafficking and volunteers to talk to young girls in residential care about the harms and dangers of prostitution. She lives in North Dublin.

Reviews

I am struck by this powerful and deeply moving book.

-- Donal Dorr * Act To Prevent Trafficking *

It's not often that a book makes you re-think your beliefs, but Rachel Moran's thought-provoking memoir, Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution, does just that.

-- Jennifer May * Ireland's Big Issue *

No amount of sugar-coating can sweeten this story up. Rachel Moran's matter-of-fact memoir, Paid For. My Journey Through Prostitution, is shocking, sordid and desperately sad. Painful to write, painful to relive and at times painful to read it is, however, as absorbing and enlightening insight into the darkest and indeed most perverted corners of Irish society.

* VIP Magazine *

Rachel Moran's brave account of her seven years as a prostitute is harrowing reading, but it also shines with compassion and humanity.

Rachel Moran's extraordinary book lays bare the seven years she spent as a prostitute. It took her more than a decade to write, looking back with clear eyes into the hell from which she had escaped. A blend of political analysis and memoir, this is at once an indictment of Ireland's tolerance of violent sexual enslavement and a remarkable woman's celebration of the survival of body, soul and passionate sexuality. It is a book about brutality by a writer of great sensitivity.

-- Susan McKay * The Irish Times *

To suggest the basic facts of Moran's story make Paid For merely a seedy coming-of-age tale would be to do the book and Moran an injustice, because the book is a profoundly political as well as personal account of the sex-trafficking industry. (...) It seems fitting that Paid For is already a bestseller in Ireland, as it brings humanity and visibility to an industry that is often depersonalised, glamorised or merely ignored.

-- Sara Keating * Sunday Business Post Magazine *

A searingly honest account of a young woman's life as a prostitute in Ireland

-- Nicky Sullivan * Evening Echo *

'Rachel knows the truth about prostitution and deserves praise for going public in the interest of other girls and women.'

-- Colette Sheridan * Evening Echo *

'Paid For is no titillating call-girl memoir perpetuating the popular myth of The Happy Hooker, the Pretty Woman redemption, the sexy student enriching her future by being prostituted to pay for her education. Now she wants men who use prostitutes to be named and shamed.'

-- Kate Holmquist * The Irish Times *

'It is neither a misery memoir where Rachel describes in lurid detail her childhood and experiences as a prostitute, nor is it a Pretty Woman style glamourisation of prostitution. It is scholarly, well written, articulate and while it is often difficult to read, it is certainly worthwhile'

* Alex Donald's Multiverse *

'You're an inspiration from girl to girl'

-- Sinead Desmond, Ireland AM

'It is a story which will shock, maybe even horrify - on a subject which society does its best to avoid'

-- Jason O'Toole * Irish Daily Mail *

'Paid For also gives an understanding of the myths and misconceptions versus the real world of prostitution and adds an insider view on the legalisation and decriminalisation of prostitution.'

* Irish Books Direct *

'A brave woman steps out from Ireland's dark side and gives a clear-eyed account of the violence that is prostitution.'

-- Susan McKay

'An unprecedented testimony-brave, powerful and convincing.'

-- Theo Dorgan



Book Information
ISBN 9780717160327
Author Rachel Moran
Format Paperback
Page Count 368
Imprint Gill & Macmillan Ltd
Publisher Gill
Weight(grams) 302g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 128mm * 24mm