About the desk: who answers, and how it is run

Most of what goes wrong with an evening is timing. A table booked for eight and company arranged for half past seven from a district forty minutes away. A curtain at half past seven and a supper reservation for a quarter past. An arrival promised as shortly that turns out to mean an hour.

So the desk quotes minutes. How long from confirmation to the door, how long the walk from the station is, which hour the roads stop moving on a particular street. It is less flattering than describing an evening in adjectives, and it is considerably more useful at seven o'clock on a Friday.

Romilly runs the duty desk and answers most of the messages. Two other people cover the hours she does not, so somebody is reading at every hour of the night. The standard is a reply inside ten to fifteen minutes, and it holds at three in the morning as well as at seven in the evening.

She will tell you when something is not available rather than offer you an adjacent version of it, and she will say when a name you have asked for is a poor match for the evening you have described. That is meant to save you an awkward two hours rather than to be difficult.

Twenty eight women, all of them met in person before a page was written, all of them adults aged 18 and over with that verified before anything else happens. Nobody is on a hidden roster and nobody is priced above anybody else. The whole list is on On The Books and the figures on the rates page apply to every name in it.

Each page names her home district, because that is what decides how quickly she reaches you. Three live in Mayfair, three in Soho, three around the Piazza in Covent Garden, two in Marylebone, and the rest come in from the districts just outside the zone in fifteen to thirty minutes.

It does not sell anything other than time and companionship, it does not list services, and it does not price extras, because there are none. It has no arrangement with any hotel, restaurant or club, and has never sought one. It does not keep records of who booked what once an evening is over.

It also does not work outside the middle of London except by arrangement. If your evening is in a district that is not on the Zone One pages, say so and you will get a straight answer about whether it is sensible rather than an enthusiastic yes.

Courtesy, punctuality and the same honesty the desk offers. Tell us the real hour, the real address and the real length you want. If plans change, one line handles it. If somebody is uncomfortable, that is the end of the evening and nobody argues about it.

Every companion here has the right to end a booking and to refuse one, at any point and without explaining herself. That is not a clause hidden at the bottom of a page; it is how this works.

Read two or three pages on On The Books, check the district page for wherever you are staying, look at the figures, then send four lines. The reply will name who is free, what it costs and the minute she can be at your door.

If you would rather not choose, describe the evening instead. That works just as well and, in the desk's experience, rather more often.