
London now has a new bookshop totally dedicated to romance novels
Now London has its first ever bookshop dedicated entirely to these kinds of romance books, as Saucy Books in Notting Hill officially opened at the end of last month.
While these kinds of books are often called 'smut' or 'fairy porn' (many of them are packed full of NSFW scenes), they are extremely popular, particularly among young women. According to data gathered from 7,000 British booksellers, in 2024 there were record sales of 'romance and sagas' books, making up to £69 million. Sales of these 'romantasy' books even pushed UK fiction revenue above £1 billion for the first time.
'The popularity of the store speaks for itself,' Sarah Maxwell, the founder of Saucy Books, told the Guardian. 'We even had to ticket our first week and give time slots to customers.'
Saucy books even has a corner of the store dedicated entirely to erotic fiction, which Maxwell calls the 'smut hut'.
Maxwell told the Guardian that she thinks sexism, as well as 'snobbery and bias', is stopping these books, that are mainly read by women, from being as respected as they should be.
'I think there's an inherent misogyny around it. A lot of the time, the sorts of things that women like across arts and culture tends to get discounted. These books are about the female perspective and female gaze when most media is through the male gaze,' Maxwell said.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Saucy Books (@saucybooks)
Saucy Books is open at 232 Westbourne Park Road, W11 1EP now.
Yungblud is opening a new music venue in central London.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Country star Zack Bryan fires back at 'entitled' teenage fan
has fired back at a young fan who slammed him online for not signing autographs after a concert. The country music superstar, 29, was criticized in a since-deleted TikTok video for not personally greeting his fans following his show at New Jersey 's MetLife Stadium on Saturday. In the video, which was captured by American Songwriter, the teenage fan shared a video of Zach allegedly driving away from the venue in an SUV. She captioned it, 'Zach Bryan driving away from his fans that waited 4 hours to meet him; he didn't even roll down his window to say hi.' Doubling down, she wrote in a separate post, 'We waited 3 hours outside to meet Zach Bryan and he completely blew everyone off and drove away like a jerk.' According to Zach then fired back at the fan in the comments section of her TikTok video. 'You're not entitled after someone plays two and a half hours to a picture or a hello,' he wrote. The musician then added, 'GOMD', which is slang for 'get off my d**k'. While the posts have since been deleted, it hasn't stopped fans from weighing in on the situation. 'He's not wrong. Probably not the greatest response though,' wrote one. 'Zach Bryan was in the right I don't care what anyone says,' added a second. A third commented, 'I highly doubt he knew she was 14. And no one is entitled to meet or see them AFTER the show. They have clocked out and are no longer working, they need to let them live their life.' Another wrote, 'He's not wrong but he didn't have to reply. If anything he could've just said 'I was tired but thanks for coming/hope you enjoyed the show' or something along those lines.' This isn't the first time that Zach has dealt with unruly fans. Last year, the singer was left outraged when a fan tossed an object at him while he was on stage during a concert in Portland. When an audience member seemingly threw a can at his leg, the star halted his performance and questioned the crowd who had thrown the item. 'All right, who threw it?' he asked, in a video per TMZ. 'Let's not be d***s, huh? Throwing stuff at concerts?' Before he resumed the concert, Bryan tossed the can back into the audience. The incident took place just one week after he previously had an item thrown at him on stage. Zach is best known for his hit country singles Something in the Orange and I Remember Everything. He topped the Billboard 200 for the first time in 2023 with his self-titled fourth album.


Metro
2 hours ago
- Metro
Games Inbox: Why has the Nintendo Switch 2 been so successful?
The Thursday letters page tries to predict what might be in the next Nintendo Direct, as one reader thinks EA should've made a new franchise instead of Battlefield 6. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ Beyond the games Really is incredible how well the Switch 2 has done, smashing all records for sales in the US and Japan. And all with what I would call quite a weak line-up of games. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza have reviewed well but they've not blown the doors off, and I doubt either are going to be getting any serious game of the year nominations. That's fine, some consoles don't get games of that quality in their whole lifetime, but that means there's got to be other reasons for it selling so well, beyond the games. I think it's a mixture of the idea of the Switch – the hybrid console – being just such a great concept, as proven by the Switch 1, and that Nintendo has earned such trust from the last console and its games. I do feel their lack of announcements so far is already playing a bit loose with that trust but so far there doesn't seem to be any sign of them being punished for it. People are buying the Switch 2 not just for what it can do now but for what they believe it'll do in the future, based on the Switch 1. And I think as long as Nintendo don't start resting on their laurels that's fine. Looking forward to the next Nintendo Direct. Onibee Home made Thanks very much for the Amiga top 20. I can think of a few games I would've added but not many I would've taken out, which is probably a good sign. Although I admit I've never heard of or played Warhead, Exile, or Starglider 2 before. The thing that stuck out to me was how almost all of the games were British, which I didn't really think of at the time. But now I realise that most of the games I was playing in my youth were either British or British companies porting over Japanese-made arcade games. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. I actually must've played relatively few American games in those days, which is wild when you think of the industry today, where almost everything is American and there are basically no British games at all. We can't turn the clocks back but clearly something has been lost and I agree that it's a nice treat nowadays to play something that hasn't been made in either the US or Japan. I don't know if we're going to get a flood of French games now, because of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but I'd much prefer that than another game where I have to save New York City. Columbo The penultimate ninja I recently invested into System 3's Last Ninja collection Kickstarter. I have hoped for an updated/new Last Ninja game for decades. While this collection is a way to keep the purchaser as a custodian of the game of sorts, I do think the inclusion of The Last Ninja 4 demo is proof that the game could be given a new lease of life. As Mark Cale has said, it takes a lot of time, effort, and not least money to make a game these days, so perhaps some rich individual/company might give the game a chance to be played by today's younger gamers and see what a fantastic experience it is. GHH69 GC: Oh, they've also got IK+ in there too. Email your comments to: gamecentral@ Slowly does it I have a feeling we're all going to be disappointed by the next Nintendo Direct. They have got far too much stuff that nobody cares about to talk about at the moment, that I don't think they're going to have time for anything else. We might get some new Mario Kart World content, but we know nothing about Hyrule Warriors and Kirby Air Rider at the moment, or Metroid Prime 4. Even if they split that off and give it its own Direct, I think next year's games are just not what they're bothered about at the moment. Maybe we'll get a mic drop teaser at the end, maybe, but I think that's much more likely in the autumn or at The Game Awards. From Nintendo's perspective everything has worked out perfectly with the Switch 2, I don't think they're in any hurry to move things forward. Grant Boomer extrusion I've got to say, that Fallout 1 remake you mentioned looks really amazing. I'm not familiar with the Doom engine it's made with, but it seems to have the perfect balance between old school and modern, and I'm very keen to see more games made with it. So-called boomer shooters have become quite popular in recent years, but they always seem kind of forced to me. But I really like this approach, of remaking an isometric game in the style of an old school first person game. It makes me want to see other games like Planescape: Torment and maybe even the original Diablo games? It would be cool, I think. Beniz Rainbow 12 I've bought and been playing recently Ready or Not, a cracking game that's just come out on PlayStation 5 and Xbox. It's a mission-based game where you have to storm a building/office/home and take out the bad guys. It can get played single-player with bots or online with friends or randoms. I guess it's a mixture of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six games and Rainbow Six Siege. It's a very tense game, knowing one wrong move can lead to death and a mission restart. The AI is impressive, especially the enemies who move around the maps very effectively and cause some unpleasant surprises. At £45 I thought this was money well spent – replay is high, as each time the enemies start in different places. All in all, highly recommend. Keep up the good work. Manic miner 100 (gamertag) GC: Thanks. Secret ending Surely there's going to be a Metroid Prime 4 Nintendo Switch 2 hardware bundle by Christmas as well? Which is going to make at least four different official ones. I would warn everyone though that the cheap Mario Kart World one is not going to be around forever. Nintendo hasn't said when it will stop but they have said it won't last past this year. I pointed this out to a friend who was weighing up whether to get one or not and I said to him it's not a good idea to wait until autumn because that deal could just disappear overnight. Lumpy Giving up If Battlefield 6 is as big a hit as EA wants I will be shocked. They've got four separate developers making this?! For a franchise that's always been an also-ran and where the last one sunk without trace within a matter of days? Are we sure this isn't a tax write-off or something? The big problem with the lack of new IP today is that companies would much rather flog a dead horse than just come up with something relatively similar, that has more freedom to try new things. We all know what a Battlefield game is and I'm sure that after the failure of the last one they'll try and paint the new one as being back to its roots or some such tagline. But why not just make something new that doesn't have all that baggage? What are the main elements of Battlefield? 64+ player battles, lots of vehicles, and destruction. There's really nothing beyond that, with no consistent setting, no unique game modes, and definitely no ongoing storyline. Surely it'd be far better to make something new in the same area then spend half your time defending yourself from rabid fans and the other half telling non-Battlefield fans that they shouldn't be scared because it's called Battlefield 6 and yet is actually the 13th sequel. Maybe I'm being naïve, but I think there comes a time where a name becomes more of a hinderance than a help, especially with a franchise that never quite made it to the big time. Lostem Inbox also-ransWhat I don't get with these next gen portable rumours is how much is it all going to cost? If you've got a PlayStation 6 home console and the portable, isn't that going to be the best part of £1,000. And then they turn round in a couple of years and try and push the PS6 Pro? No thank. Grondite I loved the Amiga. I would say Superfrog was my favourite game but then I played it again recently and it was awful. Nostalgia can be a hell of a kick to the head sometimes. The Bishop More Trending Email your comments to: gamecentral@ The small print New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers' letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content. You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader's Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot. You can also leave your comments below and don't forget to follow us on Twitter. MORE: Games Inbox: Will there ever be a new Mass Effect game? MORE: Games Inbox: Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Commodore Amiga MORE: Games Inbox: What is the next big game for Nintendo Switch 2?


Spectator
3 hours ago
- Spectator
Monaco, the people-watching paradise
I'm lying on a sun lounger in Monte Carlo and there are so many women with extended blonde hair, hornet-stung lips and bazooka breasts stuffed into tiny monogrammed bikinis that I can't distinguish between them. They make me feel as though I'm part of a different species. My battered copy of Bret Easton Ellis's The Rules of Attraction and a sweating glass of champagne complete the scene. Like Bret, I'm drawn to the dark side of glamour, which means Monaco is a people-watching paradise. Along with the bazooka babes, ninety-something men also aren't in short supply. A leathery, wispy-chested man in that age category is slumped next to the pool, with a bandage on his foot, plasters up his arm and a wheelchair tucked away to the side. He is chain-smoking cigars and chugging beers. I fear his obit is due any minute, but what a way to go. One striking feature is the sheer number of newly installed British expats. With Labour's changes to non-dom status and the tax raids on private schools, can anyone be that surprised that our ultra-rich are fleeing to places like Monaco? Though I've heard there have been complaints from bored wives trapped in their new gilded cages abroad, missing the verve of British society, which nothing can ever replace. Poor Rachel Reeves. The left-wingers in her party want to bring in a wealth tax, which everyone with a brain knows will drive away even more high-earners, but she's too weak to rule it out. Ever since her horrific breakdown in the Commons, she's been singing for her supper in the City, with a desperate smile screwed to her face. Oh well, at least some of the expats seem to be enjoying their time here. I watch an English man with big gnashers devour an entire watermelon while casually transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars from one account to another on his laptop, which has a terrier drinking a cocktail as its background. A week before I flew to Monaco, I had a padel lesson as part of my attempt to ingratiate myself with the world's elite. Forget Wimbledon or even polo, these days it's all about padel in high-society land. Clare Stobart – of the haulage dynasty – took her helicopter to a club in Oxfordshire to meet me and we pranced around with a dashing Spanish instructor (they are always Spanish and always hot) firing balls at us. Goldman Sachs-type guys in caps battled it out on the next-door court while yummy mummies waited their turn. I've been a Francophile since my late grandmother, Anne, first told me stories of her summers in Paris. During the second world war, when she was wee, the family had hosted officers from the Polish tank regiment at home in Kelso. One of those officers, Romain, died in battle in France and was never forgotten by my family. One day at the end of the war there came a knock at the door. A Parisian woman in a powder-blue Dior suit asked to come in – her name was Agnès Chabrier. She claimed to be Romain's fiancée and wanted to see where he had been happy. As it turns out, Agnès was a fierce writer in the Saint Germain set. She released political manifestos under her own name (she wrote scathingly against the USSR, saying that 'When the Russians take Paris I'll be the first to hang from my balcony!') and potboilers under the name Daniel Gray. She became close to the family and invited Anne to spend summer with her in Paris, in her apartment on Boulevard Raspail. The characters my grandmother met there became my fairy tales: the Japanese woman in the kimono who came to tell of the horrors of Hiroshima; the Slav who put his gun on the mantelpiece; the Dior model on the train; the American soldiers celebrating Bastille Day. So began my lifelong pursuit of France and society (I once lived for a year on an oyster farm on Ile de Ré – but that is a story for another time). Monte Carlo, though, is more humorous than France, so extravagant is the richesse. At breakfast at the Hotel de Paris, I enjoy watching the super-rich on the terrace front row being attacked by hungry gulls. (The secret is to ask for a table a row or two back.) Schadenfreude is delicious. And hubris is punishable. On my final night, I request room service on my balcony and brush off the server's warning about those gulls – I want that sea view. So when, like harpies, they circle, swoop and attack, I flee screaming inside only to see my dinner be snatched up and the glasses smashed. I suppose it's only fair enough.