Gloria Vanderbilt, a plastic statue of whom is pictured here, has written an erotic novel. Glad to see she’s keeping busy. You know, it can get lonely with only the bunny slippers to keep you company.

plicit book, which is to be published in June, has already sent shock waves through the reserved upper echelons of New York society after passages were leaked to a New York tabloid. The leaks showed that Vanderbilt’s prose spares no one’s blushes in its explicit descriptions of kinky sex. Andrea Peyser, a columnist at the New York Post who got hold of the 143-page tome, breathlessly called it “pure, elegant, unadulterated smut” – before reassuring readers that the book was light enough to be “easily read with one hand”.

The plot follows the adventures of society beauty Priscilla Bingham, whose husband, Talbot, dies after 10 years of marriage. She then discovers his letters to his dominatrix lover, Bea, and becomes obsessed with exploring his secret world of erotica.