From a coal miner to a monk, a male escort to a ‘manny’ – Tim Auld talks to five British men taking the road less travelled by
Published: 7:00AM BST 18 Oct 2010
THE MALE ESCORT
Andrew, 46, has worked for the Cavendish Knights escort agency for nine months. He has chosen to remain anonymousI get selected to escort somewhere between six and eight times per month. I’m usually hired for about four hours, for which I earn £360. If you’re doing that twice a week then it keeps the wolf from the door; if you’re doing it three times a week then it’s good money.
Sometimes it pays more than I earned as a lawyer. I was made redundant about nine months ago when the company I worked for had to downsize. They had to pay compensation, so I had enough money to live for a while, but you know how quickly that diminishes, so I wanted something that would replace it.
Becoming an escort wasn’t my idea, it was my sister’s. She said to me that I’d been used by women and friends of hers to escort them to places for so many years, because they considered I was good at it, and I’m not gay, and she thought, ‘Look, why don’t you do that?
‘A friend of hers had actually used the Cavendish Knights agency, and said this was a straight non-sexual agency. I thought, ‘Yeah, right,’ but checked it out, felt comfortable with it and joined up. The only reason I’d do it is because it’s 100 per cent non-sexual.
It’s not something I would ever have dreamed of doing, but it’s turned out to be more enjoyable than I’d imagined. I remember my first date, where you’re trembling a bit, and you have to have a large Scotch before you walk in. But once you’ve got that out of the way and you realise that it’s just a part, a bit like being on stage with first-night nerves, it’s fine.
I’m usually hired for a function like a wedding or a business dinner, something where a woman is expected to have someone on her arm. There’s one American lady whom I’ve escorted to functions four times. When she’s in Britain she has to go to these evening events and, basically, I don’t think she actually has a man in her life.
I think that she has her business and she simply wants someone ‘to keep’, as she puts it, ‘drunken men away’ from her. Sometimes it’s a matter of their sexuality, and they want to keep that their own business, and why not?
I haven’t ever met a client with whom I clicked or wanted to take it further – purely because I go into it with a mental picture in my mind already about what this is about. For the other party it can be more difficult; there was one lady who got back to the agency and said that there was something special there, a connection, and she was hoping very much that Andrew had it, too. And of course the agency had to explain to her, ‘You know what, he was doing a job, I’m really sorry.’ And she said ‘Well, he’s bloody good at his job!’
There have been occasions when clients have asked to have sex. I guess a couple of times. But a quick no and that’s it, you know. Huge embarrassment all round. A couple of times I’ve had people who’ve had one glass of wine too many, and with the attention and everything they kind of forget that you’re being paid to be there.
It’s usually the women who’ve been on their own for a long time. These are women who are ‘damaged’, I guess is a word for it, and they don’t want to be damaged. They want to get back out there, they want a relationship, and they see it as a starting point. They want to feel again what it’s like to sit down and spend two or three hours with a man having a meal and a glass of wine, instead of going to the pub, having two bottles of wine and getting sloshed.
I’m not in a relationship at the moment. My separation and divorce is still quite recent, so I do go on dates, but I’ve not found anyone special. It would be difficult to carry on as an escort if I met someone. I probably would stop, even though I know it’s genuine what I’m doing. If you say you’re an escort, people think that you’re a male gigolo. And there’s no way around that – that is what people think.
But for now I’ll carry on escorting until I find another job as a lawyer. It’s not exactly hard work. It’s enjoyable, it pays well and it can be fun.
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