For the third meeting of the Salford Angels’ book club, the current bestseller “50 Shades of Grey” by E.L. James was chosen.

There probably isn’t a person alive at the moment who hasn’t at least heard of this book which has quickly become a sensation, in fact the fastest-selling paperback of all time, predominately amongst women. It’s an erotic novel which tells the story of Anastasia Steele, a mousy graduate with little relationship and sexual experience who meets and becomes involved with multi-millionaire business magnate Christian Grey who has an appetite for BDSM.

The story follows Ana and Christian’s relationship and Ana’s difficulties in coming to terms with Christian’s sexual preferences, of Ana’s introduction to BDSM and her difficulties in signing a contract to become Christian’s “submissive”.

The positives of the book is that it is an easy read and we discussed its merits as being a form of escapism for bored housewives or ‘mummy porn’. Beyond this, the Angels’ book club couldn’t see the appeal of this predictable and clichéd story. Despite its international popularity, the Salford Angels unanimously decided that 50 Shades was no literary masterpiece; with little or no plot beyond the initially novel but increasingly repetitive sex scenes. The storyline is weak and depressing at best.

We gave the book 1.5/10, a brutal but fair score, currently the Angels’ lowest!