E. L. James

Erika Mitchell (born 7 March 1963), known by her pen name E. L. James, is a British author. She wrote the best-selling Fifty Shades series of erotic romance novels, which spawned a multimedia franchise including a film trilogy of the same name. Prior to this, she wrote the Twilight fan fiction "Master of the Universe" that served as the basis for the Fifty Shades series under the web name Snowqueens Icedragon. In 2019 she published her first book unconnected with the fictional world of Fifty Shades, The Mister, to negative critical reaction.

The Fifty Shades novels have sold over 150 million copies worldwide, over 35 million copies in the United States and set the record in the United Kingdom as the fastest selling paperback of all time. In 2012, Time magazine named her one of "The World's 100 Most Influential People".

Early life
Erika Mitchell was born on 7 March 1963 in Willesden, Middlesex to a Chilean mother and a Scottish father who was a BBC cameraman. She was brought up in Buckinghamshire.

James was educated at the independent Pipers Corner School and at Wycombe High School, a state grammar school for girls in the town of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, followed by the University of Kent in South East England where she studied history.

After leaving university, James became a studio manager's assistant at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield.

Career
James says the idea for the Fifty Shades trilogy began as a response to the vampire novel series Twilight. In late 2008, James saw the movie Twilight, and then became intensely absorbed with the novels that the movie was based on. She read the novels several times over in a period of a few days and then set out to write a sequel to the books. Between January and August 2009, she wrote two such books in quick succession. She says she then discovered the phenomenon of fan fiction, and this inspired her to publish her novels as Kindle books under the pen name "Snowqueens Icedragon". Beginning in August 2009, she then began to write the Fifty Shades books.

James has spoken of her shock at the success of the books. "The explosion of interest has taken me completely by surprise", she said. James has described the Fifty Shades trilogy as "my midlife crisis, writ large. All my fantasies in there, and that's it." She did not start to write until January 2009, as she revealed while still active on FanFiction.Net: "I started writing in January 2009 after I finished the Twilight saga, and I haven't stopped since. I discovered Fan Fiction in August 2009. Since then I have written my two fics and plan on doing at least one more. After that ... who knows?"

In August 2013, James topped the Forbes' list of the highest-earning authors due to her book sales with earnings of $95m which included $5m for the film rights to Fifty Shades of Grey.

Personal life
James married Niall Leonard, a novelist and screenwriter from Northern Ireland, in 1987. They have two sons. As of 2012, they live in Brentford, West London.

Awards and honours

 * 2012 Time 100 by Time magazine, "The 100 Most Influential People in the World"
 * 2012 Publishers Weekly "Publishing Person of the Year".
 * 2012 National Book Award (UK), "Popular Fiction Book of the Year", Fifty Shades of Grey
 * 2012 National Book Award (UK), "Book of the Year", Fifty Shades of Grey

Fifty Shades trilogy

 * Fifty Shades of Grey (2011)
 * Fifty Shades Darker (2012)
 * Fifty Shades Freed (2012)

Fifty Shades as Told by Christian trilogy

 * Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian (2015)
 * Darker: Fifty Shades Darker as Told by Christian (2017)
 * Freed: Fifty Shades Freed as Told by Christian (2021)

Mister and Missus duology

 * The Mister (2019)
 * The Missus (2023)