Heady mix of sex and soap opera

Melanie pens second bestseller inspired by her famous clients

Sex, scandal and soap. What’s not to like? So it is proving with agent and author Melanie Blake’s second book Ruthless Women.

The tale of lust, treachery and revenge went straight into the Sunday Times hardback fiction chart at number four, staying in the top 10 for a month spending a month in the charts alongside literary heavyweights Maggie O’Farrell, Richard Osman and Naomi Ishiguro.

Ruthless Women is inspired by Melanie’s behind-the-scenes knowledge of British soap operas. It is a behind the scenes look at the cut-throat world of a fictional soap opera Falcon Bay and something Melanie was well versed in. As an agent she has represented some of the best known actresses in East Enders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale. These include Patsy Kensit, Michelle Collins, Stephanie Beacham, Emily Lloyd, Denise Welch, Jennie McAlpine,

Laila Morse, Daniella Westbrook, Amanda Barrie, Gillian Taylforth and Nadia Sawalha.

What shines through, as you turn the pages of Ruthless Women, are the difficulties women face in the worlds of entertainment and business.

Ageism and sexism often rear their heads in the novel. Melanie was worried how her approach would go down with her famous clients.

But she needn’t have worried. Melanie said: “Every single one of them, from Beverley Callard through to Stephanie Beacham, came back and said, ‘We love it, we’re proud of you, we want everyone to read it’.”

Ruthless Women is her second book. The Thunder Girls – the story of aging pop stars – was also a bestseller and she turned it into a sell-out play.

Ruthless Women is out in paperback now.