First Family Enjoys Purple Prose at Fund-raiser

H O U S T O N, April 27 -- Reading was fundamentally racy this week at a fund-raiser for former first lady Barbara Bush's literacy foundation.

Her son and daughter-in-law — the current president and first lady — joined with former President Bush to raise more than $2 million for the fund on Thursday night.

One of Barbara Bush's favorite mystery writers, Elizabeth George, spiced up the evening of readings with a passage from her soon to be released book, A Traitor to Memory.

The passage was about a "terminally fat" British woman who host forums where "the sexually dysfunctional populace of greater London came together for solace."

"Libidos were examined," the author read, touching on the subjects of frigidity, fetishisms, erotic fantasies, sadomasochism and satyrism.

The obese character "might be anorgasmic herself, but who was to know as long as she had success in consistently promoting happy orgasm in others," she read. "And that's what the public wanted after all, guilt-free sexual release upon demand."

Referring to another character, a participant in the "eros in action groups," she read of a woman who was losing interest in having sex with her husband.

"Delores herself owned up to enjoying her vibrator and a picture of Laurence Olivier as Hamlet far more than the marital embrace of her spouse."

And at home, the obese character perused her video collection for something that "got her juices flowing" so she could masturbate in front of the television.

President Bush said he enjoyed the entire evening.

"The readings were fantastic," he said.

A smiling Barbara Bush's only comment after the reading, which generated a round of applause: "A lot of people are going to go on a diet after that."