{"id":26806,"date":"2012-08-06T15:29:24","date_gmt":"2012-08-06T05:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=26806"},"modified":"2016-03-01T09:48:24","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T23:48:24","slug":"caroline-baum-fifty-shades-my-tuppence-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2012\/08\/06\/caroline-baum-fifty-shades-my-tuppence-worth\/","title":{"rendered":"Caroline Baum: Fifty Shades – My Tuppence Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The other day I was in a rehearsal room with a bunch of young women. Several were reading one of the Fifty\u00a0Shades of Grey <\/em><\/a>\u00a0trilogy while waiting to perform. I was surprised. I thought this was a book you might want to read in private (as you can tell, I haven\u2019t read it). I asked one of these young women how it felt to be reading this book at work, in a public place and she replied: \u2018Oh I\u2019m on the third book (Fifty Shades Freed<\/a><\/em>) and I just skip the sex because it\u2019s become boring, I\u2019m just interested in what makes the guy tick \u2019. Silly me thought the sex was the whole point but then my GP, who is a big reader, said exactly the same thing. She too is skipping the sexy bits.<\/p>\n

Is that what everyone is doing? (Let me know here –\u00a0@mscarobaum<\/a>)<\/p>\n

On a more personal note<\/strong>: it turns out that one of my closest friends from my teens and student days in the UK is married to none other than E. L James.\u00a0 He had told me a few months ago that she was writing what he referred to as rude pulp romance but I didn\u2019t pay much attention back then. Silly me could have got a scoop!\u00a0 Now he is being referred to in the media as Mr Fifty Shades of Grey<\/em> because he\u2019s just done a book deal of his own and the suggestion is he would never have attracted the attention of a mainstream publisher if he were not married to the biggest selling author of the moment. Well, I\u2019m here to tell you that at seventeen, Niall Leonard\u00a0 who grew up in the border town of Newry in Northern Ireland at the height of the troubles already wrote brilliantly – I have the letters to prove it.\u00a0 He went on to make a very successful career as the writer of TV series like Monarch of the Glen<\/em> and\u00a0Wire in the Blood<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The UK media are being\u00a0 sneery, ungenerous and cynical, not to mention ill-informed\u00a0 in patronising him. But\u00a0 of course he\u2019s having the last laugh : suddenly he and Erika are as rich as Croesus. His young adult novel Crusher<\/em><\/a> will be published in October. The plot sounds\u00a0 great (a boy comes home and finds his father bludgeoned to death and himself the main suspect. He has to find the real killer) and I\u2019m looking forward to reading it.<\/p>\n

By Caroline Baum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Crusher<\/h2>\n

by Niall Leonard<\/strong><\/p>\n

To catch a killer, Finn Maguire may have to become one…
\nThe most talked-about debut thriller of 2012.<\/p>\n

Everything changed the day Finn found his father in a pool of blood, bludgeoned to death. His dull, dreary life is turned upside down as he becomes the prime suspect – how can he clear his name and find out who hated his dad enough to kill him?\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Facing danger at every turn, uncovering dark family secrets and braving the seedy London underworld, Finn is about to discover that only the people you trust can really hurt you…<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Niall Leonard is an acclaimed screenwriter, whose credits include\u00a0Wire in the Blood<\/em>and\u00a0Silent Witness<\/em>. Originally from Northern Ireland, he currently lives in West London with his wife and two children.<\/p>\n

Click here to order Crusher<\/em> from Booktopia,
\nAustralia’s No.1 Online Book Shop<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day I was in a rehearsal room with a bunch of young women. Several were reading one of the Fifty\u00a0Shades of Grey \u00a0trilogy while waiting to perform. I was surprised. I thought this was a book you might want to read in private (as you can tell, I haven\u2019t read it). I asked one of these young women how it felt to be reading this book at work, in a public place and she replied: \u2018Oh I\u2019m on the third book (Fifty Shades Freed) and I just skip the sex because it\u2019s become boring, I\u2019m just interested in what makes the guy tick \u2019. Silly me thought the sex was the whole point but then my GP, who is a big reader, said exactly the same thing. She too is skipping the sexy bits. Is that what everyone is doing? (Let me know here –\u00a0@mscarobaum) On a more personal note: it turns out that one of my closest friends from my teens and student days in the UK is married to none other than E. L James.\u00a0 He had told me a few months ago that she was writing what he referred to as rude pulp romance but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1161,1458,1734,1980,3937],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57164,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26806\/revisions\/57164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}