Sarah's writing journal

Cosmopolitan magazine after a few gin and tonics?

That's one of the review quotes for Scarlet, the UK's only erotic magazine for women. I went to an all-women talk on erotic writing recently, and really liked what Scarlet's founder, Emily, had to say there about how and why she started the magazine. Actually, it wasn't just what she had to say but how she said it. She made it fun, normal and exciting, and hurrah for that AND her magazine. I'm really pleased WH Smiths are stocking it, and was delighted - if poetically gobsmacked - at Heathrow recently to see so many copies on display.

One of the best quotes I heard all night at the erotic writing talk was on the way out, when my friend and I were joined by another woman who'd been at the meeting. 'Of course we might talk about it, but most of us probably still lie back and think of England', this woman said. 'Not in my house we don't,' said my friend, who's married to a Scotsman.

The meeting was held in the staffroom on the top floor of Foyles, where, appropriately, in pride of place on the wall was a black and white photograph of the shop in the 1960's with a sign saying something like 'Lady Chatterley's Lover Sold Out, More Coming', at the time of the famous court case.