to wonder who still reads Mills and Boon books

[lostsoulsunited]

I keep seeing them come up on Amazon but I'm surprised they are still being published as they seem so outdated in this day and age - woman meets man, falls hopelessly in love, lives happily ever after.

My great grandmother read them: I was astonished to see how raunchy they were when I went to read to her in hospital many years ago. Didn't realise they were still on the go!

My Mum.

She just won't try Dostoevsky!

Some of the new ones are surprisingly kinky!

My mum does, she's 79. I bought her a kindle but she doesn't use that and still buys flippin Mills & Boon from the book stall on the local market.

Yes some of the newer ones are more erotic fiction than romance 😉

She just won't try Dostoevsky!

I'm with your Mum on that one, neither will I

erotic fiction - so 50 shades of grey type stuff then?

My mum used to read them in her lunch break or when work was quiet as they are easy to pick ho and down.

I read one once, maybe 7 years ago. Just to see what it was like! Shite!

Apparently if you write 3 a year you can get about £100000.00. They all follow the same format.

.I wonder if it’s a developmental thing in older women - when you’re past the age when you’re ever going to experience the flush of love with a hunky young man you enjoy the fantasy of it.

I wondered that, there is this image of the M&B reader as older isn't there? I don't think I've ever (before the days of e-readers) seen a younger person reading them.

I'm not into slushy romance either, so much so that when I see young couples starting out on married life i just think they are making a big mistake - I'm so not romantic or maybe I'm just a grumpy old woman.

I've name changed for this but My mum was a Mills & Boon author, one of the top sellers. She had 30 plus books published. She did write them in a tongue in cheek style though and she didn't tell any of her friends that she wrote Molls & Boon.

I do.

Very few M&B authors will be on £100k, but it can still be a reasonably good living if you can be consistent and prolific. The lines are fairly regularly updated and these days there are some which have more explicit sexual content. There aren't any lines where all the books are guaranteed to be closed bedroom door any more, though there are still some books published with no sex.

Mills and Boon is now part of Harlequin and owned by HarperCollins. In America romance fiction is a billion dollar industry, accounting for around half of the entire fiction industry. I don't have the statistics for the UK but it is still a very substantial industry. Plenty of people are reading those books. Young women, middle aged women, and older women. Well-educated women, professional women, all kinds of women, in fact.

If you want any recommendations for books or authors to start with, let me know. They're cheap, they're quick to read, they are emotionally and psychologically rich, and without being flippant and shallow in the way that some romcoms/chick lit can be, they offer a positive worldview that personally I find hugely comforting as the world around us goes to hell in a handbasket.

Some people like a bit of light weight escapism. I think Mills and Boon have been superseded by those “mild romantic drama at the twee cafe” type books, I certainly see far more of them for sale than I do M&B, but there’s probably still a dedicated fan base out there.

As you've name changed can you tell us her name? Maybe we'd try out her tongue in cheek style of writing.

I've read them since I was 17. I'm uni educated professional now in 50s but I've always read them. They're great.
Before then I read 'Sweet dreams' books.
Georgette Heyer is a more high brow equivalent but m and b are better.

They out sell every other publisher, annually.

My mum 😂

Also, this: woman meets man, falls hopelessly in love, lives happily ever after.

Yes, sort of. But actually many of my very favourite ones are "marriage in trouble" stories rather than "meet cute" stories. In romances, there are always obstacles to overcome and baggage to deal with. They aren't pretending life is always easy.

I hate the child trauma books though. Bestsellers!!? Now that's an alarming trend. And crime books all involve murder and violence. No thanks.
Read most classics too but they're not as heart racing.
You should try them.

I read one for book group once. It was from the 'Blaze' series. I remember something about "her breasts plummeted to the floor" after the bloke unhooked her bra. One of the most entertaining books I've ever read.

I certainly see far more of them for sale than I do M&B

A lot of bookshops refuse to stock M&B and not all supermarkets carry them either. But they still sell plenty through their subscription model, as well as online sales (of both print and digital books).

Also a good number of the authors of the twee cafe books (which I mostly can't bear) started out in M&B. It's one of the few publishers which takes submissions from authors who don't yet have agents, so it's a great way to break in to the industry.

lostsoulunited her Mills and Boon name was Emma Richmond. She was a secretary by day, when she started writing. We grew up happy but without much money and when me and my sisters were in bed she'd write - longhand in pencil on A4 paper. Then she'd type them up manually on an old fashioned type writer. She'd send them off and they'd be returned but she kept at it until they accepted one. After that she had 3 a year published for a good ten years.
They weren't the books she wanted to write but she saw it as a way to escape the job she disliked and be able to be at home more. She was slightly embarrassed about it though and didn't tell anyone.
She died suddenly a few years ago. She was really the best mum and wrote kind of effortlessly. I've got all of her books and I'm really proud of what she achieved. I miss her every day.