The Petticoat Parade: Madam Monnier and the Roe Street Brothels

Josie de Bray was a brothel madam who owned most of Roe Street, Perth from WWI up to the 1940s. This immensely readable social history uses the life of Josie de Bray as conduit into the lives of her friends and competitors – the many of the women who paraded in their petticoats on the verandas of Roe Street, and who were kept from the public view and were secret keepers themselves in the seamier side of town.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

‘Brilliant … Leigh Straw’s unflinching yet compassionate account brings vividly to life the flamboyant Perth madam Marie Monnier and the fascinating, brave women of red-light Rue de Roe.’ Larry Writer author of Razor

‘… a thoughtful and deeply researched social history …’ West Australian

‘Leigh Straw does a fantastic job of linking these long-forgotten places with the streets of modern-day Perth city … The hard-working, driven women that shaped Roe Street may have been forgotten over time, but The Petticoat Parade keeps their legacy alive …’ Writing WA