THE author of a racy novel got steamed up after a leading high street store banned her book from Southend.

Vikki Dark has just published her second novel, The Trouble With Beauty, inspired by her time as a 19-year-old lap dancer in Stringfellows.

While it is for sale in other branches of Waterstones, her hometown branch has decided it is just too steamy.

The 34-year-old mum of three boys thought she had a book signing arranged but was astonished to be told that the store had cancelled the event and wouldn’t be stocking the book because of its erotic content.

Miss Dark, of Woodgrange Drive, Southend said: “I was really disappointed. It was due to take place within the next four weeks and I was really looking forward to it. They were looking at how many books to order in then I had a call saying the manager said they don’t do erotica book signings and it was inappropriate.

 

Echo: “It is no worse than a Jackie Collins book and far less salacious than Fifty Shades of Grey.” The book follows the antics of a lap dancer who falls in love with a much older man whose ulterior motive is to lure her into a fraud.

Miss Dark added: “The book is humorous and only has a couple of erotic bits which are pretty mild so it’s really disappointing. I had arranged for lots of people to come to a party afterwards and had hoped to sell quite a few books.”

Miss Dark’s first book Disturbia sold about 4,000 copies and she hopes her latest novel, published by Pegasus, will be a success.

Larissa Procker, event team manager for Waterstones said: “An over enthusiastic book seller pencilled the book signing in but the manager thought it was not something they should be doing as they weren’t sure if there was a market for it in Southend.

“The store is also undergoing a bit of refurbishment so it would be difficult to cater for book signings. We have had a word with staff who just needed a bit of training and we will be apologising to the author for the misunderstanding.

“We have sold Miss Dark’s book at other larger stores like Piccadilly and Nottingham but the Southend store is quite small so can’t stock every genre.”

Other high-profile authors have had book signings at the store, including model Katie Price.