The Romantic Fiction Of Mills & Boon, 1909-1995

Jay Dixon, Jay Dixon.

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781134217373
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Culture populaire dans l'art

This study to analyzes romantic fiction's depiction of women as part of the broader history of ideas about women.; Given the success of the Mills & Boon romance, their portrayal of subjects like sex, love, marriage, class, motherhood and femineity are important cultural barometers and make interesting study.; The author shows how all these themes have an historical trajectory and how these novels have come to reflect feminist concerns.; Based on a study of over 1000 Mills & Boon romances the book provides analysis of plot types and shows how these have changed in response to women's own changing position within society.

Chapter One

A Short History of Mills & Boon – A very profitable small firm

Mills & Boon are the publishing success story of this century. The firm was started by Gerald Mills and Charles Boon in 1908 with £1,000 capital. They had both previously worked for Methuen – Mills as Education Director and Boon as Sales Manager. Their first office was in Whitcomb Street, London W1, but in 1909 they moved to 49 Rupert Street. In their first year their turnover was £16,650 publishing in all fields – educational, general non-fiction and fiction. Their early general books included theatrical and other reminiscences, travel guides, “how-to” games books, various forms of self-help and children’s books. They also published craft books, which they continued to do until 1980.

Their fiction list in the first decade of their business covered crime, plays, comic novels and historical novels. They also published Hugh Walpole’s Mr Perrin and Mr Traill in 1911 and in 1912 his Prelude and Adventure. In the same year they produced P.G. Wodehouse’s The Prince and Betty and E.F. Benson’s Room in the Tower. Some of their early women novelists included I.A.R. Wylie, now best known for her book The Daughter of Brahma, published by Mills & Boon in 1912, and Beatrice Grimshaw, whose When the Red Gods Call, a blockbuster sensation of its day, they published in 1911. They also published Elizabeth Robins’ play Votes for Women, which was based on her pro-suffragist novel The Convert, in 1909, and Winifred Grahame’s virulently anti-suffragist novel Enemy of Woman in 1910. In translation they published, among others, Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera.

Few of these writers stayed with the firm for long, most worked with a number of other publishers throughout their writing lives. One who did stay was Jack London. Mills & Boon published many of his books between 1912 and 1923, including South Sea Tales and When Gods Laugh in 1912, The Cruise of the Snark in 1913, as well as his wife Charmian London’s log of the Snark as Voyaging in Wild Seas in 1915. After Jack London’s death in 1916 they brought out an almost complete collection of his books in 1918.

Apart from publishing established authors, Mills & Boon were described in the Morning Post as publishers of “clever first novels”. By the 1920s it was established practice for them to publish four new promising authors in July of each year.

They also published a group of books which dealt primarily with human emotions, the successors of which were to make the name of Mills & Boon synonymous worldwide with category romance fiction.

These early romances can be separated into four distinct groups, according to the setting where the action takes place: exotic, society, city and country. The exotic and society novels are set among the English upper classes, the former in such countries as South America, Africa, Burma and India, the latter in southern England. The city and country novels have middle-class protagonists and, like the society novels, are also set in southern England, generally London and the south-east respectively. The society novels disappeared in 1914, and the other categories gradually merged, so that by the beginning of the next decade, although some novels could be associated with particular categories, the differences in content between these categories was no longer clear and the new writers of the 1920s made no distinction between them.

Many present-day historical romance novelists portray the Edwardian period as the “belle-époque” – a glamorous golden age. However, in reality, for many people this was a time of hidden fears as general unrest threatened the stability and self-confidence of the upper classes. These fears are reflected in the Mills & Boon books of the day – even the society novels. In all the novels of the 1910s there is some type of external menace, from E.M. Forster’s “abyss” of poverty that haunts the city novels, to the alien African country of the exotic novels, the threatened menace from the city in the country novels, and the deceit and murders of the society novels. This is not to say that these early novels were expressing a social critique. Rather, it is to argue that from the earliest days of their history, Mills & Boon books have symbolically represented aspects of the society in which they were written.

The society novels had a figure of Cupid for their logo, a figure which was to reappear in the 1940s bearing a placard inscribed “A Mills & Boon Love Story”. One of the most popular authors of society novels was Joan Sutherland, who set her books among the landed gentry. Her canvas is broad, and many of her characters, especially the women, lead unhappy lives. Generally, however, the books end happily for the main protagonists who are ensconced in a loving marriage – a staple of Mills & Boon romances which has never changed. Another theme that is central to Mills & Boon books throughout the decades is that trust and love go hand in hand, and that one without the other is worthless. This is apparent in The Cheat (1909) by Laura, Lady Troubridge, who wrote seven society novels for Mills & Boon between 1909 and 1912. She was the sister-in-law of Una Troubridge, who was Radclyffe Hall’s lover, and was herself a member of the social élite.

The exotic novels are still common today, with authors setting their books in most continental countries, America and Canada, South America, Australia and New Zealand and various African and Arabian countries. The main difference between the earlier novels and those of today, is that the earlier heroes were always British and the heroines occasionally European; these days the hero, and sometimes the heroine, are more likely to be natives of the country in which the book is set.

One of Mills & Boon’s most prolific authors of exotic novels was Louise Gerard, most of whose romances were published in America, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Holland, as well as in Britain. In a back cover blurb on one of her books Louise Gerard writes that she was born in Nottingham and educated at the high school there. Having always wanted to travel, at the age of 19 she went to West Africa which would be the setting for many of her books. Gerard always visited the countries that she used as settings, and, as a result, visited most of Europe (including Russia), Morocco, the Canary Islands, Tunisia, Madeira, Algeria and “The Great Sahara Desert”. She dedicated all her books to a woman friend who was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and who, presumably, was her travelling companion. Gerard also wrote Mills & Boon’s first medical romance, Days of Probation, published in 1917. Medical romances appeared in the company’s list from then on, eventually becoming a distinct line in 1977.

Many authors wrote country novels, including S.C. Nethersole and Marian Bower. These were set in southern England, portraying country life and hard-working heroines and heroes. The heroines, generally independent-minded women, often suffer hardship – either economic or emotional – before being united with their heroes.

Sophie Cole was one of Mills & Boon’s most prolific authors of this period. She wrote her first book for Gerald Duckworth and Co., and then moved to Mills & Boon, publishing 60 books with them between 1909 and 1941, (including 3 guide books for London), before moving to Ward Lock with whom she published her last 5 novels. She wrote city novels, all set in London which she knew well, although she lived in Henley-on-Thames.

Like many other publishers, Mills & Boon faced a crisis over its financial welfare in the 1920s. During this period, publication of all categories of books increased, attaining record levels, although there were also “dramatic increases in production costs and lower profits” (McAleer, 1992:51). Mills & Boon were not unaffected by this, nearly going into bankruptcy, mainly, according to Charles’s son, John Boon, because of two factors: lack of capital and the absence of a backlist. Gerald Mills’s death in 1928 brought the financial crisis to a head, as a considerable portion of the company was in his estate. The problem was solved by J.W. Henley, also from Methuen, who bought about a third of Mills’s equity becoming joint managing director with Charles Boon.

At the same time the firm, though still continuing their other fiction and non-fiction publications, laid down the foundation for their future economic success by beginning to specialize in romance fiction, which was published in hardback only and sold mainly to the commercial libraries. They added to their list Elizabeth Carfrae, one of the new breed of authors who wrote “racily” according to The Scotsman’s review of her The Devil’s Jest (1926). They also retained Denise Robins, one of their most popular authors, who remained with them “for eight or nine years” before “somewhat reluctantly” moving to Nicholson & Watson for a £1,000 advance, which Charles Boon refused to match (Robins, 1965:136). However, M.J. Farrell, who published her Knight of the Cheerful Countenance with Mills & Boon in 1926, did not stay with them, nor did Georgette Heyer. It was Heyer’s third historical romance (not her first, as both Mills & Boon and McAleer (1992) state), titled The Transformation of Philip Jettan, which was published by Mills & Boon in 1923, under the pseudonym Stella Martin. It was subsequently republished by Heinemann, minus its original final chapter, as Powder and Patch, under her usual name.

Despite, or perhaps because of, the Depression of the 1930s Mills & Boon prospered. Charles Boon noticed the rapid proliferation of the commercial libraries and the rise in sales of medical, historical and contemporary romances (which did not become separate series until 1977). Consequently, from this time until the mid-1950s, general books were dropped and the firm concentrated on romance fiction. At first the company produced only hardback romances, which had a uniform appearance – brown bindings with the title and author embossed in black inside a black margin. The logo was always set in the right hand corner – and they had brightly coloured jackets. They were known as “the brown books” (Alan Boon, TV interview). This was the golden age for Mills & Boon hardback publishing, they were “doing extremely well in a period when most publishers were not doing well. It was a very profitable small firm then”, as John Boon told McAleer (1992:105). This was the start, following the trend of the day, of advertising Mills & Boon books as commodities, rather than promoting individual authors. The company developed a mail-order catalogue system (now known as Reader Service), which informed readers of future publications. They also continued to advertise forthcoming books in the backs of the novels, a practice which continues today.

Mills & Boon were at the front of, helping to fuel, the beginning of a modern phenomenon in reading. Until the 1930s books had been read for pleasure, but it is at this time that the word “escapism”, in the sense of “the tendency to, or practice of, seeking distraction from what normally has to be endured” (Oxford English Dictionary), is first applied to books. At a time of economic insecurity, in areas of what J.B. Priestley called, in his English Journey of 1933, “the England of the dole”, reading escapist literature may have been one way of coping. For others, who were in full-time employment, the 1930s was a period of increased prosperity, and reading any fiction may have had an element of aspiration. Mills & Boon books of the period do not portray extremely wealthy people, but do depict middle-class women who are in interesting jobs and men who are barristers or businessmen – the employer not the employee. This is the case with the novels of two new authors who started in the 1930s – Mary Burchell and Sara Seale, both of whom became extremely popular. Burchell continued writing for Mills & Boon until her death in 1987; Seale continued into the 1970s.

Despite Charles Boon’s death in 1943, the company continued expanding. Although paper rationing meant that the books of this period were shorter, the Second World War was in many ways a boom time:

World War II presented Mills & Boon with a dilemma. Paper rationing meant fewer books could be published, but demand for romantic fiction was stronger than ever: entertainment was limited, and the troubles of the world made for heavy reading. Every novel that could be printed was sold, and lending libraries enjoyed an even brisker trade. (Mills & Boon press release, “The Changing Face of Romance”, 1984)

Many new authors joined the ranks in the 1940s, including Janet Fraser, now better known as Rosamunde Pilcher, who wrote 10 books for Mills & Boon between 1949 and 1963. Two of the most prolific new authors of the war period were Phyllis Matthewman (who wrote for other publishers as Kathryn Surrey) and Margaret Malcolm; neither however, wrote books set during the war. This was not unusual for Mills & Boon books published during war-times, their main concern being, as always, heterosexual love relationships. A few of the novels were set against a background of war, but the majority of romances which dealt with war concentrated on the period following the war and the problems caused by returning soldiers settling back down to civilian life. A constant in post-war Mills & Boon books – after both world wars, and again after Vietnam – is the theme of healing the psychological scars left by war – by love. The Korean War of 1950–53 seems to have been ignored, perhaps because Mills & Boon authors, in their romances of this period, were still trying to come to terms with the aftermath of the Second World War. However, Mary Burchell did set one of her 1957 romances – Loyal in All – in Hungary, during the uprising.

The way Mills & Boon books dealt with the war years of the 1940s and the following years of peace and reconstruction support Lerner’s thesis that the usual periodization of history often does not fit women’s experience:

Traditional history is periodized according to wars, conquests, revolutions, and/or vast cultural and religious shifts. All of these categories are appropriate to the major activities of men … What historians of women’s history have learned is that such periodization distorts our understanding of the history of women. (1979:175)

As Batsleer points out:

In the school textbooks and in the standard accounts, women rarely appear as actors upon the public stage of history. The romantic novelist reinstates women and reverses the account. Here the history that men have made becomes the backdrop and women the protagonists in a drama of quite different significance. (1985:95)

In accordance, Mills & Boon romances cannot be neatly divided between war and post-war books. Many of the post-war novels deal with the emotional after-effects of the war, whereas many of the novels published during the war do not mention it. For the female authors and readers, the Second World War did not effectively end until well into the 1950s, when the last of the returning combatants were reintegrated into society as whole human beings. I discuss the treatment of war by Mills & Boon authors in Chapter Six.

In the 1950s Mills & Boon moved to 50 Grafton Way, Fitzroy Square, London W1, where they stayed until 1970. At the same time they returned to publishing general books as the commercial libraries began to decline. In the 1960s they increased their educational textbook list, but it was not compatible with their growing romance list, and they finally sold it in 1980 to Bell and Hyman.

Realizing that their romances would still be in demand after the commercial libraries closed, but that sales would depend as much on readers having easy access to the books as on the books being reasonably priced, Mills & Boon looked for alternative outlets. They decided that, because of the lack of bookshops in smaller towns and villages, newsagents were the most appropriate outlets for selling books – a policy which still continues (although most of their sales are now through the larger chains – W.H. Smith and John Menzies). Mills & Boon books can also be found, these days, in larger supermarkets, both in Britain and America.

The success of Mills & Boon in the 1950s attracted the attention of Harlequin Books (now of Toronto, originally of Winnipeg). This Canadian firm, bought by Richard and Mary Bonnycastle in 1958, had begun to publish, mainly reprints of westerns, mysteries and thrillers, with a few general books in 1949. It was Mary Bonnycastle who increased their romance output. The first Mills & Boon they published was Anne Vinton’s medical romance The Hospital in Buwambo, in 1957. In 1958 they added a total of seven Mills & Boon medical and contemporary romances to their list. This started a regular exchange, with Harlequin publishing many Mills & Boon titles, and Mills & Boon importing Harlequin’s books for distribution in Britain. This increase in sales and thus financial revenue enabled Mills & Boon to start publishing paperbacks in the 1960s.

Many authors still remembered today were writing for Mills & Boon in the 1950s including Pamela Kent, Fay Chandos (who started in 1937), Lilian Chisholm, Rosalind Brett (who also wrote as Kathryn Blair and Celine Conway), Joyce Dingwell, Marjorie Lewty, Rachel Lindsay, Anne Lorraine, Roberta Leigh (who in the 1960s wrote the series of Torchy Books) and Alex Stuart who was a frie...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Foreword by Rosemary Auchmuty
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 A Short History of Mills & Boon – A very profitable small firm
• 2 Reader, Author, Editor – Many hours of pleasant reading
• 3 1910s – Society and Exotic, City and Country
• 4 Hero – You brought me to life
• 5 Heroine – Mirror Image
• 6 War and Aftermath – You give me redemption
• 7 Work – The smothering of the creative spark … could be a sort of murder
• 8 Sex – We got all the damned foreplay over with months ago
• 9 Love and Marriage – Harbour of desire
• 10 Feminism – I’m not a feminist, but…
• Bibliography and Further Reading
• Index of Mills & Boon Authors
• General Index