One of the ironies of The Press Christchurch Writers’ Festival was that the star guest, Robert Fisk, works for the main sponsor’s opposition. Tony O’Reilly, who owns The Independent that Fisk writes for, also owns Australian Provincial Newspapers, which in turn owns The New Zealand Herald, The Star in Christchurch and most of New Zealand’s commercial radio stations. Anyway, it’s The Independent you’ve got to thank for this post.
The Independent has reported that Mills and Boon, the venerable romance fiction publishers who have reached 100 years in the business, have turned the heat up a notch. Gone are the days of emotional attachment between hero and heroine – from 2009 in the UK (and already in the US) it’s “sex for enjoyment” as their marketing director put it, in a series called Spice.
It is part of a continuing pattern for the Mills and Boon books – once upon a time they published sports and craft titles, before moving into escapist romances. They’ve been getting gradually more explicit ever since. All this begs the question: If Mills and Boon books have got progressively raunchier, does the audience, ah, keep pace?
One thing’s for sure: the title writers will have a field day… if they weren’t already!
23 December 2008 at 8:00 pm
[...] Fantastic new book The art of romance : Mills & Boon and Harlequin cover designs reproduces some terrific examples of romance cover art and presents them in full, glorious colour. Earlier titles had yet to latch on to ”The Ruthless billionaire’s virginal secretary” formula and instead had titles like “The wolf man” or “The lumberjack”. Simpler (and more woodsy) times perhaps? The cover art, tells its own story, as you can clearly see the change in hairstyles, fashion, and “pose”. Earlier art might picture the heroine looking thoughtful with the suitor in the background. Later art has them in much closer proximity and with the lady looking decidedly “swoony” which probably reflects the move to more “racy” stories. [...]