Charity shops in the UK are being overrun with copies of infamous erotic novel 50 Shades of Grey - because the people who bought them don't want them anymore. 

According to the Telegraph, Cancer Research UK said that as soon as they manage to sell a copy of the book from one of their charity shops, they receive two more donations in its place. 

Meanwhile WeBuyBooks.co.uk, a second-hand book buying and selling service, said they have "thousands of copies" of the book but have stopped selling them because nobody wants them. 

They claim the hype has died down, and they may be right - while fans waited several months to find out who would play the lead characters in the inevitable movie adaptation, the decision to cast virtual unknowns Dakota Johnson and Charlie Hunnam was met with a mixed response. 

The novel has fallen out of the Irish top 20 bestseller list, but we doubt author E.L. James is too bothered: in August 50 Shades passed out the final installment in the Harry Potter series to become the bestselling novel of all time, with 5.3 million copies sold. 

The people at WeBuyBooks.co.uk hope to sell their surplus copies when the movie comes out in August 2014, which we imagine won't be a problem.