Thursdays In The Park leading the way in erotic fiction for the 60+

E-BOOK takes out top chart spot, but there isn't a whip or a pair of handcuffs in sight - and the only shades of grey are on the heads of the two romantic leads.

Hilary Boyd

THERE isn't a whip or a pair of handcuffs in sight, and the only shades of grey to be seen are on the heads of the two romantic leads. Yet the latest publishing sensation owes its success to the kind of word-of-mouth praise which sent the 'Fifty' trilogy into the best-seller stratosphere.

Published modestly last year and selling only 1,000 copies in paperback, Thursdays In The Park, by 62-year-old Hilary Boyd, is now at the top of the e-book chart, outselling thriller writer Ken Follett and EL James, author of those tales of sadomasochism. After becoming a word-of-mouth phenomenon, translation rights have been sold in at least four countries and the film rights snapped up. Charles Dance - sex symbol for many a woman of a certain age - will star.

And what's causing such a flurry of excitement among female readers? The question of love in later life and what form it should take.

You'd think in these sex-obsessed days, no stone has been left unturned when it comes to human relationships. But if my weekly postbag is anything to go by, this is one trend which men and women find hard to discuss.

As an experienced advice columnist, I've lost count of the letters I've received from middle-aged women desperate for affection and (dare I say it?) real passion in their lives.

The cover line on Hilary Boyd's novel asks the quietly provocative question: 'Does love have a sell-by date?' The answer is obviously: 'No.'

But it's striking a chord with thousands of female readers because it expresses their most private fantasy - one to which the ludicrous story of Christian Grey and his whips and chains is utterly irrelevant.

Two 60-year-old grandparents, one married, one single, meet in the park while their respective grandchildren are playing on the swings - and fall in love. And I believe their story speaks to countless women who would secretly love to leave their husbands and start again.

The heroine, Jeanie, meets handsome, athletic widower Ray by the children's playground, then finds herself struggling with the problem of having a difficult husband who withdrew from their marital bed years ago and is just as uncommunicative as the man played by Tommy Lee Jones in the recent movie Hope Springs.

And like Meryl Streep's character, our heroine Jeanie grieves "that her sexuality seemed to have vanished".

But when the chemistry first begins to work between her and Ray, it's a very different story: 'Her body seemed to have come alive, as if every cell had suddenly been sparked out of a long torpor.'

To be honest, I don't know many middle-aged women who wouldn't read that and feel wistful. Perhaps they're perfectly happy in a companionable marriage, perhaps not - but that's not the point.

Even a happily married woman likes the idea of being fancied by a handsome stranger - especially when her 60th birthday is looming.

Author Hilary Boyd has cleverly tapped into that secret dream of a second crack at romance, and into the wistfulness which lies behind many letters to my advice column.

Of course men share that wistfulness, but statistically they find it easier to start new relationships - often with younger women.

In fact, at one point in Thursdays in the Park, Jeanie, who stops meeting Ray after pressure from her daughter, believes he's in love with a very much younger woman. She's in agony. I'm not going to give any more away but I will tell you that Boyd also gives us what we most want - a happy ending all round.

The core of this book lies in the tussle between love and duty. Although Jeanie is falling in love with Ray, she is very much aware that her duty lies with her husband of 32 years. George is, frankly, pretty boring. But, worse, he is also domineering and insists they must sell their London house and move to the country, even though Jeanie doesn't want to.

When Jeanie tells George that she's met somebody else (and at this point no sex has taken place) he flatly refuses to talk about the issue. He walks away saying: "There's nothing to say."

At this point, Hilary Boyd describes Jeanie's feelings in a brilliant phrase, "leaving her in the limbo of the unheard".

I know for a fact that many women exist within that limbo - because they write and tell me in my column. It's not that they want to be unfaithful, just that they long for attention from the man they married.

Let us not minimise the pain involved in ending a marriage. In the novel, Jeanie tries to stay, but realises she is clinging to George out of affection, pity and duty as well as the need for security.

Boyd paints the alternative very rosily: "The thought [of leaving] no longer spelt loss, but rather opened the door to freedom, such a scent of life, like breathing the fresh, early morning air from an open window."

Hmm . . . well, in my experience real life is much messier and involves far more pain. Earlier this year a report revealed that the divorce rate is increasing among over-60s - a rise of four per cent in two years.

Nowadays, when people can postpone the ageing process as never before, they're tending to regard turning 60 as the start of the next phase of their lives, not the end - as people in the past were led to expect. We can't dismiss this social revolution. The older generation - my own - is no longer behaving in the traditional manner.

No wonder Thursdays In The Park is becoming such a must-read, even if it merely feeds harmless dreams. After all, when Jeanie tells Ray: "I suppose that a part of me feels there is something indecent at my age, about being in love," most of us will join with her lover in denying that negation of the life-force which has nothing whatsoever to do with age. Why on earth shouldn't you fall in love at 60, 70 or 80?

But since there is most definitely no sell-by date on love, there's no reason not to try to rekindle it within your marriage, too. Men could start by inviting their wives to go for a romantic walk in the park, every Thursday.