Lap-dancer turned novelist makes her debut (From Croydon Guardian)

Former Sutton Guardian paper girl Emmy Yoshida to cash-in on 50 Shades of Grey-mania

3:41pm Tuesday 12th March 2013 in Freetime By Mike Pyle

A former papergirl who grew up to be a stripper has published a book about her experiences in an underworld of ‘red velvet, poles and mirrors’.

Emmy Yoshida, 27, a former delivery girl for the Sutton Guardian who became a lap-dancer, claims to have earned thousands of pounds a night working at gentlemen’s clubs in London and Australia.

But Ms Yoshida gave up that life to bring up her son and become a novelist. Her debut, Corrupted, is billed as a tale of sex, scandal and suspense, hoping to cash in on the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon.

Ms Yoshida said: "Corrupted started out as a bit of a memoir but as I got into it I started to make up the plot.

"I wanted to use my imagination and go a bit wild. It is based on my experiences. There are a lot of similarities between me and my character."

Ms Yoshida lived in Tadworth for 10 years while she was growing up and helped her sister to deliver the Sutton Guardian in Cheam.

She began to work at London strip clubs like Stringfellows and Spearmint Rhino to earn money to get through her course at London College of Fashion.

Her character Ria Kimura, who like her has a Japanese father and English mother, is whisked away from a London strip club to Australia by a heartthrob called Brad Harrison.

Ms Yoshida said: "I didn’t meet a millionaire while working at a club, but I did go to Australia after I finished studying."

The rest of the novel descends into a menacing chase and murder trial, but Ms Yoshida stressed this did not happen in reality.

Ms Yoshida no longer works in strip clubs and is concentrating on doing more writing at her home in Eastbourne. She self-published the novel and has already sold more than 450 paperback copies and well as about 500 copies on Kindle. 

Corrupted costs £7.99. For more information visit www.corruptedbook.com.