Chocolat author ‘being stalked by a lonely reader’
AUTHOR Joanne Harris has told how a ‘lonely’ fan she once helped has turned into an obsessive stalker.
The British novelist, 55, best known for her novel Chocolat, said the woman first sent her ‘needy’ emails – then followed her around the world and infiltrated her friendship groups.
After agreeing to correspond with the reader when she reached out on Twitter, Mrs Harris began to hear ‘alarm bells’ when the fan bombarded her with ‘affectionate but disturbing’ emails ‘five or six times a day’. Upon meeting the reader in person, Mrs Harris became ‘uncomfortable’ and asked the fan to stop writing to her – a request the stalker ignored.
And last week the over-zealous fan turned up at an event the author was hosting in Principe, Africa. At the intimate event, Mrs Harris said there was ‘no way for me to avoid her... she was with me all the time’.
She then learned the reader was planning to travel to London to spend time with her, befriended several of her friends ‘to legitimise’ the relationship – and even switched her seat on the flight home to sit next to the unsuspecting novelist.
Despite the scary situation, Mrs Harris told her Twitter followers she was still happy to interact with them online, and called the situation a ‘cautionary tale’ for social media users.
The author, who has a number of upcoming appearances scheduled, said she would circulate a description of the woman so organisers could ‘be aware’. Chocolat was adapted into a film in 2000, starring Dame Judi Dench and Johnny Depp.