The fortysomething turned her wildest fantasy – about running off with a boyband member for hot sex in fabulous locations – into a bestseller. As it hits the screen, Lee talks about writing steamy scenes in Starbucks – and her terror of being judged
Late one night, while her husband was away and her children were asleep, the writer Robinne Lee came across something that would change the course of her life. The US author, who now lives in Paris, found herself watching a particular boyband on YouTube – she refuses to name which – and felt attracted to one of them. When her husband came back from his business trip, she told him: “I found this perfect guy. I’m going to run off and follow him and his band around the world.” He laughed and said: “You’re crazy. But that would make a really good story.”
He was right. This really good story became Lee’s debut novel, The Idea of You, which snowballed into a lockdown hit, attracting legions of obsessed fans around the world via word-of-mouth recommendations. Now, the story of Solène Marchand, a sophisticated US divorcee on the cusp of 40, and Hayes Campbell, her 21-year-old British pop star boyfriend, has been turned into a film starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine.
