title: Tart Cards: London's Illicit Advertising Art
author:  Caroline Archer 
description: The practice of placing prostitutes' cards in phone boxes is known as 'carding'. It is a particularly English phenomenon specific to London and the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove where they serve a flourishing tourist trade. There have also been small outcrops of cards on the coast of North Lincolnshire that cater for a transient maritime population. Elsewhere in the UK, prostitutes still hold to the older methods of notices in shop windows although advertising in local newspapers is also used. <P>Behind the cards there is a vibrant and well-organised industry that comprises prostitutes, punters [clients], pimps and printers. It is an illicit business, but one that is thriving and persistent and where money changes hands swiftly and inconspicuously. Carding started as a kitchen table industry with a handful of prostitutes and their maids cutting out images, drawing their own illustrations, rubbing down lettering and then passing it all over to a trusted printer. It has developed into an extensive, professional, well-organised and highly technical production process that utilises the latest manufacturing systems. -Caroline Archer, from "Foreplay" the introduction to Tart Cards.
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  SUZANNE ENOCH
  
  
  Something Sinful
  
  ![](logo.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  To my sister, Nancy, for spending two weeks in En gland with me and not
  minding that I had to go into every bookstore between Salisbury and London.
  
  And to our Blue Badge guide, Bryan Gorin, who knows the coolest stuff and
  drives a London taxi—even if he does take it on the wrong side of the street.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Contents
  
  
  [Chapter 1](index_split_002.html#filepos5816)
  
  “Caine, where the devil are my boots?” Charlemagne Griffin bent…
  
  
  [Chapter 2](index_split_003.html#filepos36024)
  
  “What do you mean, you already sold the silks?”
  
  
  [Chapter 3](index_split_004.html#filepos72614)
  
  “I’m merely pointing out the fact that tariffs don’t concern…
  
  
  [Chapter 4](index_split_005.html#filepos108712)
  
  Sarala sat back to look over the letter she’d just…
  
  
  [Chapter 5](index_split_006.html#filepos140128)
  
  Charlemagne’s mouth molded against Sarala’s. He felt her surprise and…
  
  
  [Chapter 6](index_split_007.html#filepos174505)
  
  “Papa, sure