Harry Styles has been getting his nose stuck into the hugely popular erotic novel 50 Shades Of Grey and, in defence of E L James's books, he has claimed to The Sun that they're "educational".

"I haven't bought it," insisted the One Direction star, "but a female friend of mine was forcing me to read it out to her the other day." He added "They were like, 'Just borrow this,' and I was like, 'Hmmm'. It seems interesting. I could probably learn from it, I don't know. I feel like it's an educational and interesting read." Styles wasn't reading it to try and get them into bed, though, and the teenager insists that he is not the lothario that the press have made him out to be. "I don't want to be viewed as a womaniser or whatever" he claimed. "I'm not quite as I'm made out to be. I have friends who are girls and sometimes even if I give them a lift home I'm 'dating them', or whatever. It's fine, I have a lot of fun."

"I think that's important. You don't want to look back with any regrets, but at the same time if I met someone who I got on with and I liked then who knows?" he continued. "I know a lot of people are up for sitting down and going through who they have slept with. I know sometimes it might come across in the paper that I'm a bit like that, but I'm really not."