A History of Mills & Boon
Show Notes
When we look at the history of romance novels, often people pin the start of modern romance history to the 1972 publication of The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss. By doing this, people erase a key evolution and influence in romance, which is the category romance. If you’re from the UK then you already know that the category publisher there is Mills & Boon, and they’ve been a publisher for a little over a century. First starting out as a general publisher in 1908, over the decades Mills & Boon gradually specialized in romance novels. Harlequin, first seeking to re-print their medical romances, eventually bought Mills & Boon in 1971. While we look at the history of the company, we also focus on publishing gatekeepers and how they’ve influenced the romance genre.
Bibliography
1921 - The Craft of Fiction by Percy Lubbock
1965 - Stranger Than Fiction by Denise Robins
1981 - “The Ever-Changing Faces of Romance” by Marlouise Oates. Los Angeles Times https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1981/07/05/the-ever-changing-faces-of-romance/ad2cc935-80ae-438a-b664-68188e3f096d/
1983 - Love Lines by Rosemary Guiley
1984 - Love’s $weet Return by Margaret Ann Jensen
1984 - “The Romance Wars: the Harlequin-Silhouete Deal Ended Years of Increasingly Costly Struggle as Expenses Rose and Tastes Changed.” Publishers Weekly.
1987 - The Romance Revolution by Carol Thurston
1990 - ““No More Virgins”: Writing Romance - an Interview with Emma Darcy” by Albert Moran. The Media of Publishing. https://freotopia.org/readingroom/4.1/Darcy.html
1992 - “Romance Slaves of Harlequin” by Richard Pollak. The Nation
1992 - “Love makes the world go round (?): The romantic novel as a publishing phenomenon” by Frances Whitehead. Logos
1994 - “Media : New Owners Rescue Mills & Boon From Strong Heroes, Pliant Heroines : Venerable British publisher updates its romance novels with materialism, more sex and a bold seductress or two” by William Tuohy. LA Times. https://web.archive.org/web/20210730022717/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-03-22-wr-37238-story.html
1994 - “A little of the romance goes out of Mills & Boon” by Sally Weale. The Guardian
1996 - The Merchants of Venus by Paul Grescoe
1996 - “Obituary: John Boon” by Jack Adrian, David Waddington. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-john-boon-5607633.html
1998 - “Category Romances” by George Paizis. The Translator, 4:1, 1-24, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13556509.1998.10799004
1999 - The Romantic Fiction of Mills & Boon 1909 — 1990s by jay Dixon
1999 - Passion’s Fortune: The Story of Mills & Boon by Joseph McAleer
2000 - “Romancing the World: Harlequin Romances, the Capitalist Dream, and the Conquest of Europe and Asia” by Peter Derbyshire - https://www.jstor.org/stable/23414563
2004 - “'Sorry, Harlequin,' She Sighed Tenderly, 'I'm Reading Something Else.’” By Edward Hyatt. The New York Times. https://web.archive.org/web/20210126000409/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/17/books/sorry-harlequin-she-sighed-tenderly-i-m-reading-something-else.html
2004 - “Harlequin Reorganizes Editorial Team” by Jim Milliot. Publishers Weekly. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20040816/25866-harlequin-reorganizes-editorial-team.html
2007 - “The Black Romance” by Belinda Edmondson. Women’s Studies Quarterly. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27649661
2007 - On Writing Romance: How to Craft a Novel That Sells by Leigh Michaels
2008 - “And I deliver’: An interview with Emma Darcy by Glen Thomas. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies
2008 - The Art of Romance Mills & Boon and Harlequin Cover Designs by Joanna Bowring
2009 - “Digital Romance: When it comes to format, romance readers are promiscuous” by Rose Fox. Publishers Weekly. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20091116/26153-digital-romance.html
2010 - “An insider's guide to writing for Mills & Boon” by Alison Flood. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/15/insider-guide-writing-mills-boon
2010 - Fabulous at Fifty Recollections of the Romantic Novelists’ Association 1960–2010 edited by Jenny Haddon & Diane Pearson
2011 - “At Harlequin, Toye Retires, Moggy Rises.” Publishers Weekly. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/people/article/45894-at-harlequin-toye-retires-moggy-rises.html
2011 - “Harlequin Announces Stoeker’s Retirement, Personnel Changes.” Publishers Weekly. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/people/article/46271-harlequin-announces-stoecker-s-retirement-personnel-changes.html
2014 - “Torstar Sells Harlequin to News Corp.” CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/torstar-sells-harlequin-to-news-corp-for-455m-1.2629450
2014 - “Harlequin Mills & Boon's First Black Romance?” by Laura Vivanco. https://vivanco.me.uk/blog/post/harlequin-mills-boons-first-black-romance
2014 - “Patterns and Trends in Harlequin Category Romances” by Jack Elliot. Advancing Digital Humanities
2014 - “Love Affair With Digital Over For Romance Publisher Harlequin?” by Jeremy Greenfield. Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremygreenfield/2014/03/06/love-affair-with-digital-over-for-romance-publisher-harlequin/
2014 - “Three Reasons News Corp Bought Harlequin, World’s Biggest Romance Book Publisher” by Jeremy Greenfield. Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremygreenfield/2014/05/02/news-corp-buys-harlequin-worlds-biggest-romance-book-publisher-three-reasons/
2014 - “Romance and Innovation in Twenty-First Century Publishing” by Olivia Tapper. Publishing Research Quarterly
2017 - “jay Dixon: Write the best novel you can!” https://romanticnovelistsassociationblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/jay-dixon-write-best-novel-you-can.html
2017 - “Romance Was His Metier” by Steven Heller. PRINT. https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/harlequin/
2019 - “How Capitalism Changed American Literature” by Dan Sinykin. Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/how-capitalism-changed-american-literature/
2021 - “Marketing Love: Romance Publishers Mills & Boon and Harlequin Enterprises, 1930–1990” by Denise Hardesty Sutton
2022 - “‘Dance between Raindrops’: A Conversation with Vivian Stephens” with Julie E. Moody-Freeman. Journal of Popular Romance Studies - chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.jprstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/DBRACWVS.05.22.pdf
2022 - “Harlequin and LGBTQ+ Romance: A Chat with Dianne Moggy.” https://www.writeforharlequin.com/23048-2/
2024 - “Passion, Profit and Prejudice: The Women Behind the Rise of Mills & Boon 1936-1976” by Vic Pickup. Women’s History Today
2024 - “Words of Wisdom from Harlequin’s Vice President of Editorial” by Marcia King-Gamble. https://romancingthegenres.blogspot.com/2024/11/words-of-wisdom-from-harelquins-vice.html
2025 - “Readerlink Will Stop Distributing Mass Market Paperbacks at the End of 2025” by Jim Milliot. Publishers Weekly https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/industry-deals/article/97161-readerlink-will-stop-distributing-mass-market-paperbacks-at-the-end-of-2025.html
2025 - “Publishers Plan for a New Mass Market Paperback Winnowing” by Jim Milliot. Publishers Weekly https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/97179-book-publishers-plan-for-a-reduced-mass-market-paperback-footprint.html
Transcript
Coming soon!
