Chicken

Emerging from an almost normal suburban family of British emigres, before descending into the life of a teenage prostitute in Hollywood, this is David Sterry's unforgettable chronicle of a season spent walking the razor-sharp edge between painful innocence and the allure of the abyss. Arriving in town to attend college, but desperate for money, Sterry was introduced to a pimp who established him as a male prostitute serving wealthy older women (and occasionally men). Juxtaposed against bitter anecdotes from Sterry's disintegrating family life is an unflinching and fascinating account of the Neverland of post-Sixties sexual excess. The frank descriptions of his 'dates' range from wickedly funny to baroque to deeply disturbing.