How big is Mills & Boon?
Huge. Harry Potter may have shifted 400m books in 11 years; Mills & Boon sell the same amount every two. In the UK it releases 50 romantic titles a month. Its novels, translated into 25 languages, are sold in 109 international markets, and this year it began publishing for 300m English readers in India, where the books, uniquely, are popular with men as well as women. There are also editions in Polish for immigrants to the UK, with titles such as Tejemniczy Ukochany (Mysterious Lover) and Ksiaze Pustyni (Desert Prince). In fact, in the time you’ve taken to read this, 10 Mills & Boon books will have been sold in the UK – the company calculates that one is sold here every three seconds. Do they all follow a tried and tested romantic formula? Yes, a formula already clearly marked out in pre-WWI titles such as The Virgin’s Treasure: a Romance of the Tropics (“This was not England but the tropics, where blood runs hotter, and where incredible things happen with amazing swiftness”). The acti
