STRANGER THAN FICTION Cult authors’ twisted fates
Before E.L. James’ steamy Fifty Shades series and Jackie Collins and Judith Krantz set the publishing industry alight with their sizzling stories, the scandalous debut novels of two struggling women became runaway bestsellers.
Those books were Peyton Place and Valley of the Dolls, and they would change the lives of their authors, Grace Metalious and Jacqueline Susann. Unfortunately, neither woman enjoyed her money and fame for long – they both died before their time.
But their books went down in history for capturing the attention of millions of readers with saucy storylines, and revolutionising fiction for women.
More than half a century later, they remain on the list of the highest-selling books of all time, with Peyton Place selling 12 million copies and Valley of the Dolls a whopping 31 million.
Grace took the publishing world by storm in 1956 with her very first novel. She had started writing Peyton Place – then called The Tree and the Blossom – two years earlier aged 30, as a poverty-stricken housewife living in a ramshackle cottage in New Hampshire with her teacher husband George and their three kids.
Grace was so driven to finish her first
