Having just spent a week in Marbella, home away from home to TOWIE ‘stars’ and WAGs, I was fully expecting to see acres of Fifty Shades books on the beach.  In past years the beautiful, and much-maligned, Costa del Sol town has been a great guage of what the world is reading.  Two summers ago you couldn’t move for the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, in all languages, and before that it was Harry Potter in various volumes and languages.  But weirdly I spotted just two copies of Ms James’ trilogy – one on the market stall in the town square (see pic) and one in the hands of a man on my return flight to Luton (honestly, do men read it as some sort of user manual?).

Perhaps everyone else who was glued to their Kindle was reading it surreptitiously. I gather the books are the most successful ebooks ever, so I’m guessing that must be the answer as the sales success of the series implies Christian Grey is tickling the fancy of everyone from Australia to Zimbabwe.

Susie Dunlop, Publishing Director