Misery lit is big business. With sales of £3.87m in 2007 the market seems to be desperate to read about some other person's suffering. According to The Independent though, it seems that the huge demand for misery lit has now reached saturation and is, in fact, facing a downturn.
The global phenomenon is argued to have started with A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer in 1995, then there was Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (which was made into a film) and Please, Daddy, No by Stuart Howarth amongst countless others. So although the genre made £3.87m last year estimates for this year are only £2.59m.
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