Love is in the air
I love the idea that the economic downturn has fuelled a sharp increase in sales for Mills and Boon, don't you?
Romance, it seems, is recession proof and it appears millions of us want a happy ending. And that is just what you get with Mills and Boon, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. The company, which began as a general fiction publisher, is thriving. UK monthly readership is more than 1.3 million. A Mills and Boon book is sold every 3 seconds in the UK.
All those Booker shortlisted authors and winners must weep at such statistics. It might feel terribly old fashioned, but the Mills and Boon romantic ideal is still alive.
There must be something in the air with happy endings, as the Barbican this week hosts the European premiere of the original Prokovfiev score of Romeo and Juliet, with a Mark Morris-choreographed production.
The original score was banned because the composer dared to alter Shakespeare's ending to a happy one - and it was deemed to be too modern.
Well, these days it appears, happy endings are just what the doctor ordered.
I'm 
Comment number 1.
At 5th Nov 2008, Dominic wrote:"I love the idea that teh economic downturn has fuelled a sharp increase in sales for Mills and Boon, don't you?"
No! I've just lost my job. I don't love anything about the downturn, and neither would you if you didn't have your secure job writing your inane column.
Why should I be pleased that a publisher of rubbish novels is doing well, or that frivolous journalism is still alive and well?
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Comment number 2.
At 6th Nov 2008, Alan Slater wrote:'Art goes all gooey as the credit crunch bites.'... What?... Art and Mills and Boon in - almost - the same sentence?... I think not! nor is Mills and Boon 'romance'... it is mawkishly sentimental pap of no literary or artistic value whatsoever. Romance is Byron, Shelley et al.
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Comment number 3.
At 6th Nov 2008, billy_carryduff wrote:kearney, catch a grip, anyone would be sad for you, that you lost your job but it really is darwinian. the people who we do not need, who are superfluous, loose their jobs. the people who are important and who we obviously need, like bbc journalists (and mills and boon writers) get to keep theirs.
i agree 100% with Old_Reprobate, M&B is not romantic literature, it is pulp fiction.
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Comment number 4.
At 9th Nov 2008, tacrepus wrote:I think the concept you seem to be having so much difficulty in describing can be summed up in one word. Escapism.
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