One hundred years ago, the modern romance genre as we know it, debuted its first imprint: Mills & Boon. Founded by Gerald Mills and Charles Boon as a general fiction publisher, ironically its first book was a romance, Arrows From The Dark by Sophie Cole. Between this period and the 1930s, Mills and Boon carved out a steady niche for new authors to enter the market, but it was during the height of the Depression that the imprint became entwined with the romance novel.

Considered be the “Golden Age” of M&B, the 1930s saw six to eight thousand copies of each story printed, and with an emphasis on packaging, the brightly colored covers became a trademark for the brand allowing easy recognition that caused titles to fairly flew off the shelves. On the back of every new M&B title, an advertisement declared: “I always look for a Mills & Boon when I want a pleasant book. Your troubles are at an end when you chose a Mills & Boon novel. No more doubts! No more disappointments!” In the post-WWII climate, M&B shifted gears with the time once more, instituting a direct mail catalog and promoting its titles across Europe. M&B caught the attention of American-based Harlequin in the 1950s and the M&B authors were exposed to the North American market with such popularity, many authors were surprised by the ample royalty checks quickly arriving in the mail.

By 1966, paperbacks represented 50% of Mills & Boon’s stock and by 1968 they were releasing 130 hardback and 72 paperback romances a year. The ties between Harlequin and M&B were cemented by success and gradually titles which didn’t fit the tried and true Nurse-Doctor romances, and in the spirit of progress, sexual content increased as well. The companies merged in 1971, and a controlling interest was sold to Tolstar a few years later. With a large corporation backing them, Harlequin-Mills & Boon were able to publish their novels across the globe, and by the mid 1980s the imprint had sold nearly 250 million books worldwide.

To celebrate Mills & Boon’s centenary, not only has the imprint planned a bunch of events, they also plan to release books written specifically for the 100 year celebration. The most exciting entry in the list is Nicola Cornick’s June release (May for you British readers) The Last Rake in London. Set in 1908, the year of Mills and Boon’s founding, it is the story of one of the last dukes of Kestrel and the scandalous owner of a nightclub.

Under a blaze of chandeliers, in London’s most fashionable club, Jack Kestrel is waiting. He hasn’t come to enjoy the rich at play, he’s there to uphold his family name. But first he has to get past the ice-cool owner: the beautiful Sally Bowes. And Jack wants her to warm his bed – at any price!
Edwardian society flocks to Sally’s club, but dangerous Jack Kestrel is the most sinfully sensual rogue she’s ever met. Inexperienced with men, the wicked glint in Jack’s eyes promises he’ll take care of satisfying her every need..

Join me later this month for a special interview with Nicola! To whet your appetite, check out her excerpt.

Further Reading: Passion’s Fortune: The Story of Mills & Boon by Joseph McAleer

Ah Jane Austen! It is apparent that she shall never go out of style, as witnessed by the many TV & movie adaptations and novels inspired by her life and works. But the obsession with all things Austen goes much farther back than spate of movies released in the 1990s.

The “cult” of Jane Austen finds its origins in 1870 with the publication of a memoir written by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh. In doing so, he “sentimentalized his aunt to make her conform to Victorian values, which had become more rigid and repressive by mid-century, so that she would not offend Victorian sensibilities.” As a result, many contemporary authors praised her novels and their endorsements propelled Jane Austen into the spotlight.However there were her detractors (as there are today, as I have found, having stumbled upon a facebook group dedicated to their hatred of her works–it is telling that the majority of its members are men).

Mark Twain held her works in revulsion, stating: “Jane Austen? Why, I go so far as to say that any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen. Even if it contains no other book.” But Rudyard Kipling demurred, writing a short story entitled “The Janeites“, in which a group of English soldiers in WWI who formed a “shadow Masonic lodge based on their deep admiration and extensive knowledge of Jane Austen’s novels, which are a source of consolation and support as they undergo the horrors of World War I trench warfare.” By the 1890s, the popularity of Jane Austen and her novels was such that it “resulted in no less than ten new editions of her novels in less than a decade and three memoirs by different hands within as many years”.