| Book Review | Labour History, 95 | The History Cooperative

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BOOK REVIEW

*Raelene Frances, Selling Sex: A Hidden History of Prostitution, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2007. pp. x + 342. $39.95 paper.*
Over the past 30 years, much has been written about prostitution and its history in Australia. Contributions by Kay Daniels, Judith Allen, Ann McGrath and numerous others including Raelene Frances, have provided wide-ranging insights into a trade, that despite its supposed ignominy, has never been too far from the public eye, let alone, popular imagination. Given this, the title of Raelene Frances' latest book, Selling Sex. A Hidden History of Prostitution, raises expectations that are a little difficult to meet. While the title may serve as a marketing tool pitched at a popular audience, it runs the risk of leaving those with a greater familiarity of the subject, wanting a something more than what is offered.	1
Certainly Selling Work is the first single authored book to attempt an overview of women's involvement in prostitution in Australia from before colonisation to the present. In doing this, it is extremely competent. Frances spans Australia's states and territories, mapping the development of prostitution within developing capital cities as well as more remote mining towns, ports, pearling stations, pastoral runs and regional towns. Particular locations are sometimes used as a focus for the discussion of broader themes. For example, Broome and Kalgoorlie illustrate experiences of prostitution in frontier communities, whilst Melbourne and Sydney in turn provide focal points for exploring the rise and fall of 'grand brothels' and the link between prostitution and organised crime in the twentieth century.	. . .

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