Author Jennifer Belle on her controversial comeback, disagreeing with Madonna and teaching ‘cancelled’ Jeanine Cummins

Jennifer Belle was once one of America’s most lauded new authors. It was a privilege to work with Madonna and,” she adds, impishly, “I hope she options this one, too.” “This one” is Swanna in Love, Belle’s first novel in 14 years. “Because these are pretty outrageous themes, even for someone like me.” She says she’d wanted to write about this particular episode in her life – the summer camp, the wayward mother, the errant boyfriend and his truck – for some time, but realised that the story needed more of a page-turning narrative thrust to it. “Yes, but may I remind you that Going Down didn’t feature any sex in it at all… OK, maybe it was provocative and button-pushing a little, by gentlemanly English standards.” And here she points directly at me, laughing as I blush, “but it may have seemed a little more suggestive simply because I had a smartass American voice that I think you guys like.” open image in gallery Once one of America’s most lauded new authors – New York’s glitziest young writers lined up to praise her debut novel – Belle’s literary career has been patchy Either way, Swanna in Love is provocative. “Jeannie wrote a book that everyone wanted, everyone loved, but then this one girl on the internet decided that she didn’t have the right to write a book like that.” The complainant, joined subsequently by many others, argued that the novel was an exercise in cultural appropriation given that Cummins herself was American, and not Mexican.