Gigolo: Inside the Secret World of the Super Rich

Product Information

Details about his encounters are covered in his book 'Gigolo: Inside The Secret World of the Super Rich', which is up for a People's Book Prize. As a well paid gigolo, Ben’s bank account swells and he acquires a taste for the good life, while his wife, Kelly, is both suspicious that Ben provides more than just massage to his wealthy patrons and is being drawn into a world that will eventually destroy him. And she’s right. What I loved most about it, is that is one hundred percent real. Ben Foster invites the reader into his life as a male sex worker, giving us every detail of his alluring and complicated story. Ben Foster works double shifts for minimum wage at a care home for boys with learning disabilities. With a young wife and three children under the age of five, he is ground down by poverty and debt.

Ben was a nice man, doing for others, getting by week-to-week, trying to improve his and his families lifestyle, he got caught up in all the glitz and glamour -the façade- the easy money. It seems like it took him a while to see behind the masks, but he got there. Ben doesn’t describe himself in much detail but from the way women reacted to him, I picture him as tall, well built and good-looking. Ben does share more of his internal life with us, and he comes across as positive, sincere, caring and someone who is adept at examining life. The author paints a vivid picture of the world the rich and famous live in and the stark contrast with Ben’s world is powerful. Mr Perkins said: "I need the money to support my family. It is for a select few people who I will never name and shame. The insight on what British ultra high net worth individuals do and how they behave is fascinating. His thoughts on the subject are illuminating. The parties, trips and sex go on for a time after he is hired to work in a high end spa. As is often the case, he begins to believe one of his friends and over extends himself, purchasing property and enrolling the kids in activities. Another old friend had warned that the higher you ascend, the further you fall. Just as the economy takes a dive, the bottom falls out. I saw that coming miles away.

But in addition to too many descriptions of touching this and that, Ben Foster, the Gigolo, also tells us his personal story from 2005 to 2007- and it’s a good one. It's actually not a bad read for "this kind of thing" with a bit of politics,bit of social history,the odd observation on society and an in-depth introduction to massage thrown in for good measure which I found very interesting and hadn't expected.

So by total chance, one day Ben meets his clients’ mum and the “committee: a circle of her rich and bored friends. The narrative voice is a compelling one and Ben is a nice guy: self-deprecating, charming without being insincere, and all-round good guy (apart from the fact that he's 'cheating' on his wife, of course!) He now works as a carer, but supplements his income by providing his services to female clients, mostly from around Norwich and Attleborough.He’s used his gran’s inheritance to get a qualification as a masseuse and throughout the novel you can see how conscientiously he does that, how he approaches it philosophically and as a healer. You might love it, or you might hate it, but of one thing I’m sure, anyone who reads this book will be highly entertained and it will be hard, if not impossible to put it down. I thought: 'this is great, this is where I would like to take the therapies, this is where I would like to go'. With his new clients, money and expensive presents aren’t the only thing to threaten Ben’s integrity: obviously the rich clients expect sex in addition to the massages Ben signed up to give them. Jim Perkins, 44 from Bradwell aka Ben Foster has spoken about his life as a gigolo. Picture: Neil Didsbury (Image: Archant)

There are other points where it's hard to accept the story at surface value: that Ben has sex with around 2000 women in two years, including periods where he's servicing up to five women a day (he's in his thirties, and has what he describes as a physically tiring job as a masseur, as well as a family life - come on!); that his wife never really queries his sudden influx of designer suits, new cars, weekends away, even newly shaved genitals (and saying that they only have vanilla sex in the dark really doesn't explain the latter). With his dark hair, blue eyes and robust appendage the ladies dub Big Ben, the shy, self-effacing care worker is offered a position as a masseur at a luxury spa and is drawn into a world of private jets, Parisian sex clubs, state secrets, lines of cocaine and orgies in country houses with a Who’s Who of celebrities, actresses, top models, MPs and the international super rich.

Married, and a father of three, Ben Foster was struggling to make ends meet, even after working two different jobs. He had inherited some money from his late grandmother and used it to go to school, and become a certified massage specialist, but it wasn’t easy getting clients.

Massage to one just the right upper-class person led to Ben being a high paid sex toy to the rich elite that only wanted attention.

He takes a few classes in yoga massage and he is turned from Ben Foster - nice guy, but ordinary guy, with unexciting job, and nice wife – into “Big Ben”, world-class stud, mingling (and more) with A-listers. This is a classic fairy-tale that happens to be real. It’s probably every man’s dream, at one time or another. You get a picture of the hardships he faces to make ends meet on a minimum wage job and when you meet his only paying customer who definitely exploits him by paying him very little for his services, especially considering the wealth he lives in. Thank you Mr David Haviland and Thistle Publishing for a copy of Gigolo by Ben Foster. I felt like this was a good read, although it did have a lot of sex, too much for this gal. I don't normally read books like this, however it has a great story line and likable characters even if snobbish and sexually lit. Big time. Going from a low-paid job looking after boys that really needed his attention, with his spare time devoted to massage.