Tuesday, July 03, 2012

'Mummy porn? I loved researching it': says Fifty Shades of Grey author E L James


First published a year ago, Fifty Shades of Grey has now sold 10 million copies

Mirror News - 1 July, 2012
EL James
EL James
Michael Lionstar

It's the “mummy porn” phenom­enon that’s breaking bookselling records on a daily basis.
The UK’s fastest-selling paperback of all-time, it has beaten all of the Harry Potter books and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.
First published a year ago, Fifty Shades of Grey has now sold 10 million copies and has also become the best-selling e-book of all time, hitting a milestone million digital sales this week.
The novel and its two ­sequels now sit at numbers 1, 2 and 3 in the ­bestseller charts on both sides of the Atlantic. In total, they have sold 20 million worldwide.
But ask first-time British author EL James, 48, about the ­graphic scenes in Fifty Shades (and follow-ups Fifty Shades ­Darker and Fifty Shades Freed) and the ­married mum of two could hardly be more ­embarrassed.
“Well, yes, they are my fantasies lived out and ­ ­explored,” she says, ­somewhat sheepishly. “But I don’t know how much detail I want to go into! Um, well, let’s just say I had a very nice time ­researching the book. That’s all I’m going to say! I’m ­actually now blushing!”
She does seem quite shy, I say, for someone who has described in detail “intense”, “delicious”, “violent”, “all-consuming”, “turbulent,” “agonising”, “exhausting”, “body shattering” and “Earth-shattering” orgasms, using a ­variety of methods from being tied up to being spanked with paddles.
“I am shy!” protests James, a former TV executive from West London whose real name is Erika ­Leonard. “You know, I didn’t expect it to be a huge bloody success.
“I put it out there quietly, I had a pen name, I thought I would carry on working in TV and just write this stuff on the side. Who would have thought a racy ­romance would be a No 1 bestseller?”
The plot – for the uninitiated – follows naive graduate Anastasia Steele, who falls for handsome young billionaire Christian Grey, who happens to be into ­sado-masochism and bondage.
Remarkably, it began as a piece of ­internet-published fan-fiction featuring the characters Bella Swan and Edward Cullen from the bestselling supernatural teen romance series Twilight.
But it saw the couple (played by ­Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in the film versions) get up to all kinds of sexy mischief they never do in Stephanie Meyer’s books.
It’s this mix, says James – romantic longing plus hardcore sex – that’s the key to her books’ success.
“Women like to read a good romantic story. And that’s what it is at its heart. Plus it’s quite spicy and racy. I think of it as a romance... I don’t think of it as erotica really.”
Full story at The Mirror

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