The “oldest window girls” in Amsterdam, Louise and Martine Fokkens, are to release a book about their lives in the Red Light District, later this month.



By Helena Kaznowska
3:41PM BST 18 Sep 2012

The memoirs of the 69-year-old identical twins will be released in English after having sold more than 50,000 copies in Dutch, reaching number one in the county’s non-fiction best selling list.

The book steams from a popular documentary, Meet the Fokkens, which was released last year.

The Fokkens, who have almost 100 years' experience of prostitution between them, reveal how they began to work in the sex industry, their struggles to become owners of their own brothel in Amsterdam’s Red Light District, and how they established the first informal trade union for prostitutes.

They also discuss how relationships in the field have changed over the years. “In the old days, the local copper would tap on the window if a girl was showing too much ankle, now the girls deal coke from their cubicles,” Louise Fokkens said.

Louise quit the business, which is legal in the Netherlands, two years ago. She “couldn’t get one leg over the other” owing to arthritis, but Martine still works in the window brothel.

“She needs the money. You can’t live off a state pension,” Louise explained in the film's official trailer.

In a statement, film directors, Gabriëlle Provaas and Rob Schröde said: "This is the story we wanted to tell."

"Louise and Martine are real old-fashioned Amsterdam hookers: liberated, cheerful and not scared of anybody," they added.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/netherlands/9550813/Oldest-window-girls-in-Amsterdam-to-release-book.html