A boy who dressed as the main character from Fifty Shades of Grey for Book Week in the United Kingdom has horrified teachers with his outfit choice.

Book Week, where children dress up as their favourite book characters for a day, usually attracts debate as to whether characters from films like Frozen count.

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But 11-year-old Liam Scholes instead decided to go as Christian Grey, the protagonist of the sexually explicit novel and now film, complete with cable ties and mask.

His mother Nicola defended her sons choice of costume, saying she was happy when he came up with his own idea.

“He was given the task of finding a costume a few weeks back and it was around the time the film came out and it was everywhere,” she said.

“And he turned around and asked me, ‘Could I go as Christian Grey?’

“Liam’s argument was: it’s the most talked-about book character for the past couple of years. So I said, ‘Yeah’.”

Although Liam has apparently not read the book, Ms Scholes said he had a rough idea of what it was about, but that the costume was intended as tongue-in-cheek.

“Apparently it went down really well with the vast majority of the students. They all took it for the tongue-in-cheek joke that it was meant to be. There’s nothing sinister, no offence intended. It was meant to be a laugh,” she said.

“The school, however, didn’t see that. They found his costume offensive.

“Liam was told he had to change his character, which I don’t think he did.

“And they wanted him to be James Bond, which ironically [is] a very promiscuous character who kills people. So I don’t know which is [the] worst of the two.”

Ms Scholes said despite the controversy, her son was enjoying the attention.

“He’s found it really amusing. It’s a whirlwind of fun for an 11-year-old at the moment,” she said.

“He doesn’t understand why people aren’t seeing it as the joke that was intended.”