Fascinating. Funny. Sad. Shocking and deeply worrying to realise these are the people running our country and holding it's purse strings.

Obviously from my Amazon name, I'm just a common working class fella from a council estate. The very sort to be called "A Phillpott," and looked down upon by The Right Honourable Gideon Oliver Osborne, Heir Apparent to the Baronet of Ballentaylor and Ballylemon.

True enough, I attended an under funded, over crowded, state comprehensive school and left at the age of 15. So who am I to question the great and the good, educated at St. Paul's and Magdalen College, Oxford?

But being uneducated myself, I do find it deeply worrying that somebody who left school with a degree in history, that applied to countless media outlets to be a reporter, and didn't get hired, despite his connections and priveldge, who has only ever really worked at refolding towels in a shop, and clearly turns up to work quite often "Feeling Poorly," is now in charge of our nation's finances. Well, coming from an estate, I know that people that feel that poorly, tend to be very irresponsible and untrustworthy with money.

So, thank you Miss Rowe for educating me. I applaud your honesty and bravery. I urge everyone I can to read this book. It should be in every council house in the nation, before the book and our council homes have disappeared. And Miss Rowe should be a household name, and thanked, in every poor household for giving us this insight into the hidden world of "our betters." Thank you indeed, Miss Rowe.

thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining account of the life of a dominatrix. this lady established a very successful business and her clientele were from the very top of society. she would be the sort of entrepreneur that George Osborne would normally champion but ...

the book also gives the reader a deeper insight into the influence that top politicians can wield as exemplified by the paragraphs relating to John Whittingdale.

I am proud to have been brought up in a working class background and this book made me chuckle when I thought of how Osborne and his ilk look down on the middle and lower classes. It's not their use of a dominatrix per se but their pathetic attempts to explain it away. George, you would have garnered more respect if you'd just said 'look I use dominatrix services and I enjoy cocaine from time to time!'

a very enjoyable read

No, I really haven't. This must have been written in one hell of a hurry and certainly not proof read for punctuation and grammatical errors, or edited for repetition, inconsistencies or clarity. Miss Rowe appears to have had an interesting life and is certainly resilient but comes across as shallow and her clients wealthy but pathetic.

Good luck to her in mischief making

on twitter, which like the book often promises much but in the end offers little that isn't already in the public domain, e.g John Whittingdale and George Osborne.

I'm giving one star. Don't waste your money, it's not a good read.

Naming and shaming is what Natalie does in this book - although she is certainly not ashamed of her past life. Given the type of memoir this could have just been a semi-erotic tease of a book, but it is a very interesting insight into how a young girl gets into the sex industry and can actually make a good living - but with all the downsides this life also presents. It's a quick read because Natalie writes in a clear flowing style so it's easy to just keep turning the pages. The one downside is that the manuscript really needs an editor to go through offering corrections - I'd guess there is at least one error per page which is a shame for such an interesting book. Get someone to read through and correct the manuscript Natalie then republish a new edition!

This is a fascinating insight into a world which is alien to me. The book made me laugh one minute and my skin crawl the next. I gave it three stars because firstly, it could do with a good edit – not for censorship, but for grammar and some confusion over details, and secondly it actually made me feel a bit sorry for George Osborne – and believe me, I am not his biggest fan! I don't know the full truth of these matters, but going by the way Rowe describes things in her book, she had a good friendship with Osborne and she betrayed that friendship for financial reasons. I am only going by what she writes in the book - I have never met any of these characters. Still an interesting read though and refreshing that Rowe never tries to make excuses for her behaviour or career choice.

Warts and All? Why not?

Let's get this straight to all you grammar nuts, Natalie is not Dickens, and why should she be?

The book is indeed raunchy; titillating (Cor Blimey Sid.); sometimes gruesome (turn away if you can); educational (so that's what that instrument is for!), a saucy and sometimes shocking expose of some rich blokes when they were spoiled brats. If it were written as a brilliant piece of prose from end to end (excuse the expression) it would not be Natalie Rowe, it would not be the heart of Natalie Rowe. It would be a cold, surgical instrument wrapped around your organs; if that turns you on better form a queue behind the Bullingdon Brats.

The book is not intended to be a classic like 1984 or Tom Brown's Schooldays. When you speak to a neighbour do you both take on the airs and graces of 18th century philosophers or Dickens or Steinbeck or Bryson (I like Bryson he is a natural follow on from Paul Theroux)? No, you do not. Whether great or not a book is also judged by where it comes from. OK straight from the heart into the handbag, but that's OK to me. Lord Ashcroft wrote a book, I'll bet he doesn't come from the same neighbourhood as Ms Rowe. His book, I believe was ghosted, wow, serious art!

To me this book is about Natalie Rowe, warts and all, by Natalie Rowe, warts (perhaps not warts) and all, and is a clear communication about how she feels and what she did. Warts and all.

Read it and read it for what it is, a working woman's story as if you were listening to her. I also like her candour, bet she knows more, eh Natalie?

A lot of people have gone to a lot of effort to make sure this book never sees print. Presumably they will go to the same effort to rubbish it now that it has.

Amongst other things, it names three ex/Cabinet ministers--most notoriously current chancellor George Osborne--as the author's clients or otherwise vice-connected, probes the excesses of Oxford University's venerable Bullingdon Club drinking society (the 'Bollinger Club' of Evelyn Waugh's 'Decline and Fall') now key to the UK government, and exposes the old Etonian elite power network's predilections for BDSM. It is an important key to understanding the 'shadow politics' of the current administration and provides illuminating insights into 'hidden London'.

'Whipping Up A Storm' also tells a very human 'rags to riches' story of a Yorkshire lass who came to London as a teen runaway and through sheer effort and despite the most dramatic of adversities finds an unorthodox kind of success in the capital. There is a great deal of honesty and truth in this book - as liable to cheer and amuse readers as it is to shock.

This is a page-turner. There is lots to learn too. The book is illuminating especially for these things:- Eton College (damage to its pupils; through them to the whole of British society); Westminster politics (hypocrisy of some); the Metropolitan police (variable approach according to who you are); London's drug culture, especially in the 1980s and 1990s; the British press (hypocrisy, mendacity); and finally the very strange requirements which some people seem to have in 'the bedroom'.

I see that quite a few comments have homed in on the author's spelling mistakes, as if they mattered. To my mind, the author's main qualities seem to be honesty, good humour and cleverness.

Loved reading this as it was about people we hear about everyday, who pretend they are better than the rest of us. Good for you Natalie, keep up the good work