Surprise US success for Briton

A little-known British author has topped the New York Times bestseller list with an erotic novel described in the US as "mommy porn".

With sales of Fifty Shades of Grey beating Jodi Picoult and Stieg Larsson in the past week, E L James – a TV executive and mother of two children from west London – has become a word-of-mouth literary sensation. Most of her sales have so far been in e-book form, with print copies in short supply, but her success has now led to a deal with publisher Random House.