From shy Essex boy to the sex god of Manhattan

Grant Stoddard is an unlikely sex god. The slightly built native of Essex arrived in New York virtually penniless in the late 1990s. While not technically a virgin, his sexual experiences were limited and he admits he was cripplingly shy around women.

That was then. This is now. In a city famed for its dating scene, Stoddard has risen to the top of the pile as one of Manhattan's most famous sex writers. He has just brought out a book chronicling his adventures, and Paramount is planning a movie about his transformation from sexual neophyte to notorious Lothario.

It is being heralded as a male - and more explicit - version of Sex and the City. For Stoddard's success in his sexual career was carried out in public as a columnist for the website That led to writing for Playgirl and later his own TV show. Stoddard, 30, has now joined the elite list of Britons who made it big in Manhattan media, though it is likely that he is the only one who has attended an orgy. Or been an extra in a porn film. Or been tracked down by fans keen to lose their virginity to him. Or stripped in a gay bar. Or gone to a week-long sado-masochistic retreat in New Jersey. Or several other things that cannot be printed in a family newspaper.

Stoddard's story, recounted in his book Working Stiff, is a classic immigrant's rags-to-riches tale. He grew up in the working-class Essex village of Corringham, moved across the Atlantic and struggled to make money. He was on the verge of going home when he entered an internet quiz in which the prize was to have sex with a married sex columnist.

He won. His experiences turned into an infamous and wildly popular sex column on Nerve called 'I did it for science'. In each piece Stoddard would have to experience any sexual situation or activity that he or his editors could come up with. The column become a huge hit.

His transformation was rapid. His 'prize' in the competition turned into a mini-orgy with two couples. Stoddard's inhibitions were wiped out in an evening. 'More people saw me naked in that one room in one night than had my entire life,' he said.

Mostly the book is a ribald account of Stoddard's journey through one of the most sexually liberated cities in the world. 'I felt nearly all the experiences were humanising. It was liberating,' he said.

But there is a darker side to his story. Stoddard has suffered a 'sort of' nervous breakdown. 'There was a blurring of the line. I was being asked to write about experiences I was having in my personal life,' he said.

He eventually stopped writing his column. But now he has caught the attention of Hollywood he is able to speculate on the final unlikely twist in his unlikely story. Who will play him in the eventual movie? 'My mum says Orlando Bloom, but I think she is just being kind,' he laughed. He's probably right. But stranger things have clearly already happened.