Fifty Shades of Grey author E.L James splashes out on £1m holiday home

Home Top

Narcos at (Instagram) war! From guns and girls to big cats and bigger piles of cash, El Chapo's sons spark battle between cartel members showing off their sickening wealth
American hostage Kayla Mueller had her fingernails pulled out before being repeatedly raped by ISIS leader: Yazidi sex slave reveals torment of aid worker's last months as the prisoner 'wife' of Al-Baghdadi
United CEO resigns in federal corruption probe after adding direct flights to South Carolina city where Port Authority chief has a vacation home
Teen who was controversially jailed for having sex with a 14-year-old girl who lied about her age could be taken off the sex-offender list
Erin Brockovich claims EPA 'lied about millions of gallons of toxic water' which turned rivers yellow last month
Love triangle suspected in car park murder of Dallas dentist: Police question boyfriend's ex 'who was using an iPhone to track the victim's movements'
Nick Gordon denies causing 'wrongful death' of Bobbi Kristina and insists he tried to give her CPR
Why you want to grow older in Switzerland...but not South Africa: Report ranks world governments according to how they're coping with ageing populations
What the globe REALLY looks like: Interactive map reveals how traditional atlases have got it wrong - and how the US, India and China can ALL fit inside Africa
Hillary gets her groove on for Ellen as she joins Pink and Amy Schumer on the chat show in first of major media appearances
Jeb Bush uses 'Late Show with Stephen Colbert' appearance to promise civility in Washington while Donald Trump continues to troll him
Now Hillary APOLOGIZES for email lapses and says 'That was a mistake, I'm sorry about that, I take responsibility' - just days after refusing to fall on her sword
Carly Fiorina thumps Trump for being too nice to Democratic front-runner and says he should 'throw a little more heat Hillary Clinton's way'
Hungarian camerawoman is fired after deliberately TRIPPING migrants fleeing police - including a father carrying his terrified young child
Syrian refugees have turned Greek island Lesbos into a war zone, residents claim, amid fears ISIS is using the crisis to enter Europe
Lilas, 2, suffered horrific burns at the hands of Assad's bombs in Syria. Now she is among thousands of starving migrants trapped on Greek island
'Europe cannot house all the misery in the world': EU chief pledges to tighten borders but warns continent must help those fleeing ISIS
Heart-warming moment a German toddler handed her sweets to a refugee girl who had just arrived in her country
ISIS kidnaps 127 children in Mosul intending to turn them into blood-thirsty killers
The long, hard road to Budapest: Why hundreds of migrants are fleeing police and trying to march 110 miles to the Hungarian capital in the desperate hope of reaching Western Europe
'I'll never get over it': Caitlyn Jenner breaks her silence about fatal car crash and her fears she will be sent to Men's County Jail
Was NASA scientist spying for China? FBI investigate after professor who worked on Mars project mysteriously resigns and leaves the U.S. amid concerns he leaked defense secrets
Revealed: Spygate was far worse than first thought as Patriots staff 'stole playbooks from rival teams and Roger Goodell helped them to cover it up'
Rock band Survivor not happy that Kim Davis walked on stage to their song Eye of the Tiger after release from jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples

E.L.James has bought holiday home in Polzeath, north Cornwall
Erotic author paid £1.125m for the clifftop property overlooking beach
Village is a favourite holiday destination of David Cameron and his family

By Sebastian Shakespeare for the Daily Mail

Published: 17:17 EST, 8 September 2015 | Updated: 18:14 EST, 8 September 2015

View
comments

E.L.James has splashed out on a holiday home in Polzeath

The Prime Minister’s preferred holiday destination for a spot of surfing, the fashionable village of Polzeath in north Cornwall, is making waves of a rather racier kind.

I can reveal that E. L. James, the erotic novelist behind the Fifty Shades Of Grey phenomenon, has splashed out some of her £75 million fortune on a dominating clifftop property overlooking the local beach.

According to Land Registry documents, the writer — real name Erika Leonard — and screenwriter husband Niall paid £1.125 million for the coveted holiday bolthole.

The single-storey property comes with planning permission to turn it into a vast three storey, five-bedroom spread of almost 6,000 sq ft, with a sauna and beach store for surfboards.

The sleek, modern design envisaged by the architects is ironically reminiscent of the minimalist aesthetic beloved by Fifty Shades’ kinky protagonist Christian Grey, who seduces student Anastasia into an S&M relationship. Is this what attracted James to the property in the first place? The couple have now resubmitted the original plans with a few tweaks.

In March, they sought permission for two heat pumps to provide a sustainable heating system for the approved development, natural slate paving, and a new aluminium side window — in powder-coated stone-grey, of course.

The master bedroom will commandeer the top floor, complete with private balcony, while the open-plan living space will stretch across the entire ground floor, connecting to a terrace.

James used to live in a £350,000 redbrick terrace house in unfashionable Brentford, West London, with her husband, but since selling 125 million copies of her novels worldwide they have moved into a £2.65 million double-fronted, six-bedroom house in a neighbouring suburb.

Bracing: The Camerons surfing up a storm on holiday in Polzeath, north Cornwall, last month

Although Niall insisted family life was unchanged by his wife’s fortune, last year the bonkbuster novelist spent her earnings on a personalised licence plate, SXY.

Surely it’s just a matter of time before Dave and SamCam receive an invitation to ‘chillax’ at James’s new home.