Michelle, companion in Camden Town

About Michelle

Height is the thing people mention first and the least useful thing to know: Michelle stands 173 cm; she is curvy, wears dark brown hair long and straight, and keeps a level brown gaze on you while she makes up her mind. She dresses for a room that will be warm by eleven, which means fabrics that move and nothing that needs rearranging, and she has an eye for one good piece of silver rather than a handful of small ones. At twenty seven she has the ease of somebody who gave up apologising for taking up room and is much better company for it.

She is generous in conversation and sharper than her manner suggests, with a habit of asking the question everyone else in the room was avoiding. There is English and nothing after it, delivered warmly and at a volume that never needs raising. Music is the through line: she sings a little, badly and only in the car, and she knows the difference between a room that sounds good and a room that is merely loud. She would rather sit through a set she does not love with somebody interesting than a set she adores alone.

Her Camden evening is generally the Jazz Cafe on Parkway, four minutes from the station and small enough that the back of the room is still the front of the room, where the late shows start when everywhere else is closing. She comes north from Chelsea, which is a straightforward run once she is on the Northern line and an act of faith in a car after seven. Afterwards she likes the towpath rather than the High Street, because the canal at midnight is the one part of Camden that has never been crowded.

Late shows are the whole point, and she would rather be in the room before the doors than halfway through a first set. Tell the desk what time they open and Michelle will be there ahead of you; the halls, the canal side and the hotels near Parkway are listed on the Camden Town page.

Asking for her

Michelle prefers a late start and a long finish, so an evening that begins at nine suits her better than one that begins at seven. Three hours at £700 covers a late set and the walk home along the water.

Every figure she works to is already public on the board, and the order of the evening is set out on the booking page.

An evening with Michelle

Nine o'clock, a late show on Parkway, and she is on the balcony side with a drink she will make last. Michelle does not talk over music, which is rarer than it sounds, but she is fully present between the songs and she will tell you exactly which track the band has been saving.

By half eleven the room lets out onto a street that is still wide awake. She turns away from the crowd and down to the canal instead, where the lock keeps its own hours and the noise drops away in about thirty seconds. The walk from there to most Camden hotels is under ten minutes, and she times an evening so that it ends on the water rather than under a streetlight.