My book is banned! Already. Even before its official launch on 7 October. Even before the paperback edition has been published. What a badge of honour!
Lola Chatterley’s Lover is a steamy romance novella set in 19th century Melbourne about a nineteen-year-old virgin who must choose between a life of comfortable security and a risky future defined by forbidden passion.
From forbidden passion to forbidden book - in India. I have been advised that its ‘adult content’ is not compatible with India’s culture. Ironic really since an ancient Indian text (The Kama Sutra) was the resource I used for the ‘adult content’. Brittanica describes the Kama Sutra as ‘part of a tradition of eroticism in Hinduism’ and explains that it is ‘the oldest extant Indian prose treatise (sutra) on the subject of pleasure (kama)—sexual pleasure, desire, love, and the pleasures of good living’.
The title of my novella was inspired by D. H. Lawrence’s book Lady Chatterley’s Lover about a young married woman who takes her husband’s gamekeeper as her lover.
Published in 1928, Lawrence’s book was promptly banned in several countries including India due to its explicit sexual content and its ‘unprintable’ words. To bypass the censorship, Lawrence had his book privately printed and published in Florence, Italy. Although banned in England and the United States, censored editions were published in 1932. Under those conditions, sales were modest.
It wasn’t until the ban was lifted in the UK in 1960 after a jury unanimously found Penguin Books not guilty of obscene publication, that book sales sky rocketed to make Lady Chatterley’s Lover an instant best seller. The trial judge was not happy with the verdict. He had expressed concern that the book’s low price would make it ‘available for all and sundry to read’ such as ‘people with no literary background, with little or no learning’.
The verdict outraged many others as well. However, it was welcomed by millions and seen as a refreshing wind of change blowing right through Britain.
My book, Lola Chatterley’s Lover, is available on Amazon for all and sundry to read. (This link is for the US Amazon store. If you are not in the USA, go to the Amazon store in your country to download the book.)