A Letter to E.L. James from Wendy Leigh
Today we’re very excited to be posting a letter from author Wendy Leigh to E.L. James. Wendy is the author of the fantastic Unraveled by Him and Unraveled by Her!
To paraphrase an old Gershwin tune, “critics may grumble, fans may crumble, but your legacy is here to stay…’’
Because without you, E.L.James, romance would have remained vanilla, and any woman – or man –who wanted to indulge in anything other than the missionary position would have lived out their entire erotic existences suffused by shame.
Without you, E.L. James, alternative sex would have remained a shady pursuit, a dark secret, something that both men and women might have indulged in, but never dreamed that their neighbour, and their neighbor’s wife was doing exactly the same.
Without you, E.L. James, all the women in the world – and some of the men – would have remain trapped in their prison of aloneness, troubled that their most intimate sexual fantasies were beyond the pale.
Without you, E.L. James, women would never have communicated their special, unique sexual desires to the men in their lives.
And without you, E.L. James, those men might have been inhibited about indulging in them with those women.
Without you, E.L. James, modern men would still believe that kindness, gentleness and a loving nature meant being a sap in bed.
Without you, E.L.James, handcuffs would have remained at the police station, hardware in the hardware store, and virgins deflowered in a dull and uninteresting way.
Without you, E.L. James, women trapped in unhappy marriages, or unhappy relationships might never have discovered the safety valve of escaping to an erotic nirvana with their favourite book boyfriend.
Without you, E.L.James, many of us might never have dreamed of ever picking up a book, never mind reading one, certainly not of the erotic romance variety.
Without you, E.L.James, women would never have nurtured the hope that yes, perhaps with enough passion and love, the man in our life might actually throw away that whip, stop yelling at us for being late, become nicer, more giving, more generous, more tender, and actually change just for the love of us –in exactly the same way as you told us that Christian did for the love of Anastasia.
And on the subject of change, you have quite simply changed the world, not just for practically every woman who ever lived and loved, but for me, as well.
Because without you, E.L. James, I would never have jettisoned my career as a New York Times best selling ghost-writer and biographer and, instead, flung myself into the wild and stormy waters of BDSM-laced erotic romance and published Unraveled By Him, Unraveled By Her, and the soon-to-be released Unraveled Together.
So here’s to you, E.L.James, Queen of erotic romance, a liberated woman, a lusty lady, and a sexual pioneer, who has transformed the lives of millions of women, including me.
What a fabulous letter! And if that wasn’t enough, we’re also giving you the chance to win the Fifty Shades of Grey DVD - all you need to do is favourite/retweet our post to enter! Winners will be announced on Monday 29th June! Good luck!
