Jodi Ellen Malpas ‘overwhelmed’ at erotic novel’s US success

Foreign rights have already been sold to her books in Hungary, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany.

Mrs Malpas says she was amazed when she saw her third book, This Man Confessed, at the top of New York Times eBook list, ahead of Inferno by The Da Vinci Code novelist Dan Brown.

“I read every one of Dan Brown’s books, he is one of my all-time favourites,” she says.

Her trilogy follows the exploits of a handsome lord of the manor Jesse Ward and a young interior designer Ava O’Shea brought in to work on the property.

“It’s essentially a passionate love story, with an erotic edge,” she says.

“Jesse is a playboy and lord of the manor. He is troubled. He is very controlling, but also very sexy.”

Mrs Malpas believes the success of the erotic fiction genre is partly down to the need to escape into fantasy.

“Like many women, we have normal lives, keep a house and home, but we escape into fiction,” she says.

She says her husband has not read her work but is “very happy for me, proud and very supportive”.

“The whole family has been left a bit stunned,” she says.

And Mrs Malpas has a straightforward tip for would-be novelists, which is to “write from the heart”.

“If you write for what you think people want to read, you won’t get the authenticity.”