E. L. James

Early life Erika Mitchell was born on 7 March 1963, in Willesden, 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.

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 US$95 million which included US$5 million 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

Published works 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)

Land of Ghosts series Land of Ghosts (2026) Land of Dreams (2027)

Filmography