Bridgerton author Julia Quinn says Shonda Rhimes discovered series after running out of holiday reading material

Bridgerton author Julia Quinn has revealed that Shonda Rhimes only became interested in adapting her books for TV after “stumbling” upon them while on holiday.

Quinn’s series of historical romance novels were released from 2000 to 2013, with the first book being adapted for Netflix by Grey’s Anatomy production company Shondaland and released in December.

But while the show has been a huge success, Quinn admitted while appearing on Tamron Hall’s talk show on Monday (25 January) that Rhimes’s offer had come out of the blue.

“The way I understand it, Shonda ran out of books to read on vacation and somehow stumbled on one of mine,” Quinn said.

“It’s crazy to think that my life is forever changed because Shonda didn't bring enough reading material on vacation, but that’s honestly what happened.”

In a previous interview with Oprah Magazine from December, Quinn said that she wasn’t even trying to option the books for TV when she was told Rhimes was interesting.

“It was really out of nowhere,” she said. ‘I would talk to people later and they’d ask, ‘How did you sell your books to Hollywood?’ I would say, ‘I didn’t.’ They just came to me. Nobody in Hollywood was adapting books like this, so it didn’t even occur to me to try to sell them.”

Each of the eight Bridgerton books focuses on a different member of the Bridgerton family, with book one The Duke and I following Daphne (played by Phoebe Dynevor in the show) and her romance with Simon Basset (Regé-Jean Page).

Book two is instead centred around her older brother Anthony and his search for a wife, with Netflix revealing as they announced that the show had been renewed that season two would also focus on Anthony (Jonathan Bailey).

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