Rise of the fantasy and fairytale

The Disneyfication of damsels in distress and their assorted princes and dragons has led us to forget a rather more adult past.

In her research, Szereto discovered most fairy tales used to have sexual content but were cleaned up at the time of the Brothers Grimm in the 1800s to serve as moral lessons to children.

So she doesn't see her book as "top shelf reading" but mainstream naughty literature with a scholarly twist - the University of Derby has even put it on its English reading list, due to the academic introduction to each story.

Other fairy tale revisions will be magicking their way to us soon, including Jean Johnson's Bedtime Stories: A Collection of Erotic Fairy Tales, which will be published next spring. Enslave: The Taming of the Beast, a take on Beauty and the Beast a little different from Walt's, is already out this month.

These books will be on the shelves of all-out sex shops, such as Sh! in Hoxton, and fancy erotic boutique Coco de Mer in Covent Garden but you'll also see them alongside the Jane Austens in Waterstone's, Borders and Foyles, too.

Seretzo says her goal was to create something that could be enjoyed by a range of readers: "I wanted to take the book into the mainstream, not just aim it toward an erotica or erotic fiction market."

Borders Buyer Emma Carter thinks the concept of erotica for women still struggles to find a market, but raunchy fairy stories work well in "softer" sections of the shop.

"There are huge trends with vampires, and things like the True Blood books are quite racy," she ways.

"Women are very narrative-led, and things that are quite steamy work better - and sell better - in the regular romance section."

Brenda Knight at Cleis Press, which is publishing In Sleeping Beauty's Bed, says that they are releasing the book with an eye on the world's financial crisis.

"We anticipated a longing for escape from the current reality of the bad global economy," she says.

"We also know true escapism involves fantasy, and there is nothing more fantastical than fairy tales."

Sex continues to sell in economic slumps; retailers say erotic fiction seems to be "recession-proof".

Statistics for the first half of this year show the sector is booming - up 17 per cent year on year when the book market as a whole is down.

US author Kristina Wright is the editor of Fairy Tale Lust, a collection of erotic stories which will hit the UK early next year.

"If the bookstores in London are any indication, the British aren't stuffy at all," she says.

"A preference for fairy tales may be because the canon of British literature is filled with myths and legends and there is a comfortable familiarity with the genre."

She feels that her collection of stories that "run the gamut from playful to intense" demonstrates the versatility of fairy tales.

Wright points out it's not surprising that money worries put us on the road to escapist fiction: "Nothing is more comforting than reading a favourite fairy tale, and nothing is more satisfying than indulging one's sexuality. There is a reason why there is a baby boom after every economic downturn."

So, if you fancy an alternative to the vamps, pop down to Waterstone's (or Ann Summers) for some fairy tale fun.