Smash hit

Such is the following of Jilly Cooper, the mistress of the English rural romp, and Jackie Collins, queen of the LA-based bonkbuster, that they have survived the downturn, albeit as lone rangers. Cooper’s latest novel, Wicked, published in paperback last year, sold 160,000 copies. She recently re-read her raunchy bestseller Riders, which is about to be re-released in America. “I can’t believe I put those things in,” she says. “It’s quite shocking.” Although not published until the mid-Eighties, Cooper started writing Riders in the Seventies. It’s a Seventies book at heart, she says, and we are in the middle of a Seventies revival now: “Just look at all the clothes.”

“Men have been so battered into submission by feminism, people have to have strong heroes in fiction,” she says. “Chick lit heroes are awful. We’re craving the tartar with the heart of gold. People don’t seem to be having sex these days; everyone’s too tired or too stressed. The return of the bonkbuster should get people going again, cheer us all up.”

The term bonkbuster, which entered the Oxford English Dictionary for the first time in 2002, was coined by The Guardian newspaper columnist Sue Limb, whose fictional creation, Dulcie Domum, tried her hand at writing a steamy novel. The range of writing within the genre is vast. Lesley Lokko, the Ghanaian-Scots author of Bitter Chocolate, published in January by Orion, is happy for her book to be called a bonkbuster, but she claims not to have read one since her teens. Her book follows the bonkbuster model – three women from different backgrounds making their way to the top – but the wide geographical and cultural references in her books are on another scale.

According to Imelda Whelehan, author of The Feminist Bestseller, “Female flakiness in chick lit – the burnt lasagne, the undone laundry, the forgotten appointments – gets tiresome. Bonkbusters celebrate women’s multitasking capableness.” Olivia Darling, author of Vintage, published this month by Hodder, is certainly a 21st-century woman capable of juggling roles. She discusses her book as if it is a first-time novel – only later do I discover, when a rival lets it slip, that she has written 19 books, mostly using her real name, Chris Manby. She has also written a series of erotic novels (currently being reissued) under the name Stephanie Ash. A soft-spoken Oxford graduate who lives in Clapham, she is clearly cagey about coming out as a bonkbuster author. At one point, she apologises for having told me earlier that she grew up in Cornwall, when in fact it was Gloucestershire.

The packaging and the author are crucial when it comes to the bonkbuster. According to Hannah MacDonald, editorial director at Ebury, Kerry Katona’s publishers: “People want to know about the name on the cover. There’s a lot of snobbery in publishing. But there’s a new focus and everybody is desperately looking for the new Lace.” Katona is five months pregnant with her fourth child but her books keep coming. She has the help of a ghost writer, Anne-Marie (Ebury refuses to reveal her surname), who is also from the North West and pregnant. “We meet up three times a month,” says Katona, who is beached on a chair, eyes closed, with her dungarees down at her waist, claiming that she is suffering from flu. She is less than comfortable talking about her literary endeavours, and keeps the five other authors at the photoshoot waiting patiently before she reluctantly joins them. Wobbling across the room in teetering heels, and a tattoo on her ankle, you can see the others watching in fascinated silence, mentally writing her into their next book.

Explore Books

• Book Extracts

• Book Reviews

• Books Group

• Audio Books

Times Recommends

• The 100 Best Books of the Decade
• The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009
• The conversation: James Ellroy