A racy and raunchy read... Soft porn for suburbia

'50 Shades of Grey' has made kinky sex accessible - and acceptable - to middle-aged women

Edel Coffey

When 50 Shades of Grey was first published almost three years ago, it sparked a resurgence in a genre of fiction that was last seen in the 1980s heyday of big, brash lifestyles. Racy and raunchy, peopled with unashamedly stereotypical gender types, 50 Shades Of Grey gave the bonkbuster a sex education tutorial via the internet and the result was essentially an X-Rated Mills and Boon novel; when you think about it like that, it was always going to be a phenomenal success.

With the film version of the multi-million selling book hitting screens this weekend - in time for Valentine's day, naturally - will the visual version live up to the original book, and will it lead to happy endings all round on Valentine's night?