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Anyone else enjoy a good mills and boon book? When I tell friends what book Im reading, when its a mills and boon they laugh.

I remember reading my first one at the age of 13, nicking it from my mums bedroom lol. Have been hooked since.

Are you my Mummy?

Seriously, when I worked on the book department at W H Smith we had women who bought a dozen Mills & Boon books every month, so no you are not the only one!

Awww James (love the name!!), you can type well for a 13 month old!

My local tescos now sells mills and boon but prefer to get mine from a charity shop or car boot sale. Bought 20 last week from our local charity shop. The kind lady now leaves them by for me before she puts them out.

My gran used to read them, i remember i may have sneaked a couple when i was younger! How many do you think there are? Are they still writing new ones?

Quoted from Clarabelle View Post

My gran used to read them, i remember i may have sneaked a couple when i was younger! How many do you think there are? Are they still writing new ones?

At W H Smith we get a complete new set of Mills & Boon titles every month. However, they only stay on sale for that month, then all unsold copies are returned to make way for the next set. There must have been thousands published over the last 101 years (they started in 1908).

Quoted from My Own Library View Post

Awww James (love the name!!), you can type well for a 13 month old!

My local tescos now sells mills and boon but prefer to get mine from a charity shop or car boot sale. Bought 20 last week from our local charity shop. The kind lady now leaves them by for me before she puts them out.

I can also read, write, talk, walk, count up to one hundred, recite the alphabet forwards and backwards and I'm fully potty trained!

Quoted from jamesofbritain View Post

I can also read, write, talk, walk, count up to one hundred, recite the alphabet forwards and backwards and I'm fully potty trained!

Hmmm do men really get fully potty trained? Only joking.

Definitely still writing them, could be wrong but I think that Penny Jordan is one of their best sellers. Got some of the dvds from the daily mail aswell. They can be corny/cheesy but I still love them.

blimey that's a lot of books! I can't belive they are still publishing that many!! That does mean that a lot of people must be still reading them though so you cant be the only one mummy2james!!

Mills and Boon are the only publishers who do not remainder their unsold product so the only source of old M&B is second hand. I have found Betty Neels who wrote best part of 2 hundred titles before she died, to be the most popular in UK I have sold about 70 of her books on this site which is more than for any other individual author. I have listed dozens M&B but unless you are looking for an author you know you will have to wait for a particular category from Greenmetropolis to be able to distinguish them. When researching publishers some years back I discovered most have one or two editors Oxford University Press had 12 M&B had over 40 editors in this country. One year the winner of Brain of Britain was the M&B author writing as Sara Craven.
If Mum2James wants to shoot down those who sneer read the on line Google pages and the wikipedia texts about M&B I found them very interesting I cannot recall how many M&B are sold per second and what their global turnover is but it outstrips any other publisher anywhere any time. I wish GM would give them a category all of their own it would be easy enough with their distinctive ISBN

I run a library on the dialysis unit where i work and I had a whole stack of Mills and Boon. They all went missing within a day of putting them out. Makes me think that someone may have a bit of an obsession with the old M and B.

We witness the fact that GM does read the posts and I think that your disappearing stack within a day is convincing that a separate category called Mills and Boon but incorporating Silhouette and Harlequin too would slowly become known and would be very popular. The only source is second hand. There used to be dozens at Car Boots, nowadays they are quite sparce, ditto in Charity shops. A really untapped market waiting for GM.to recycle.

Mummy2james - surely reading for leisure is all about enjoyment not street cred - in one of my past lives working in an office we had students working with us through the vacation - two of them were avid M&B fans and 'forced' me to read one - so I could tick it off a list of things to be done. Think some of the other things of the list were back pack through the Andes, waitress in a cafe in Sydney, swim with sharks - but think I will just stick to reading about them.

When folk tell me the trouble with M&B they are all so alike I always say....How many have you read? and ask for confirmation because I always see real avid readers can tell within seconds reading the back summary if it is new to them. I cannot distinguish between the various Jane Austen Novels I admit to knowing the plot of PRIDE and PRED having done it for an exam and seen it on TV but the others I would have to re-read to recall the plots. I suspect that thosze who say they are all the same have read very few if any.

I do not know enough about ISBN but I think M&B has its own distinctive number. Does anyone know alot about ISBN ? I bet Liz does! Maybe her OH or The Head Rabbit

Today on womans Hour Radio BBC 4 there was an item about Mills and Boon venturing into India, and MUM2 James favourite M&B author Penny Jordan was interviewed Jenny Murray mentioned that there are three M&B sold every second! Some market, when estimate that loads will be resold.

I have about 500 M&Bs & Silhouette listed here and haven't sold one yet. I was starting to think that GM was not the right site for them, so this is encouraging. I'll have to get around to listing the other 500 or so I still have in boxes!

How are the reading public recognising them as MIlls &B etc unless GM will isolate them in a Category alone There is an identifiable ISBN Perhaps it was from google I learned that they never remainder just collect and destroy. The vast majority of the sales are by subscription. Business model par excellence!

When you are on the home page and use the browsing facility instead of the search, under the Romance, Sagas & Historical heading there is a subcategory for Mills & Boon. The Silhouette titles are in the same category.

I havnt read a M&B for over twenty years. I remember my mum used to read (along with books by Jean Plaidy)and when I was pregnant with my first child, and took my maternity leave (it was a hot summer) I read a book a day!

I thought they were easy to read (but I must admit I would not read them in public just in case I was made fun of)

I also found M&B were not selling on GM so took them to my local charity shop.. maybe do a rethink on that!

I did buy them direct from M&B bookclub for a while but they are quite expensive when bought that way.

Funny enough I ALSO HAVE A FEW JEAN PLAIDY'S LISTED. NONE SOLD IN ALMOST A YEAR.....

Has anyone Mooched any M&B or readit swapit?

Quoted from MaxinesBooks View Post

When you are on the home page and use the browsing facility instead of the search, under the Romance, Sagas & Historical heading there is a subcategory for Mills & Boon. The Silhouette titles are in the same category.

Well done Maxine! I just do not roam around enough.
I have checked and find an old quotation Mills & Boon has over 3 million regular readers in the UK annually. Romantic fiction constitutes the largest section of the adult paperback fiction market and Harlequin Mills & Boon publishes series fiction, promotional titles, gift packs and single titles under different brands and imprints: Mills & Boon, and Mira.
The firm celebrates its centenary and high sales figures continue to speak for its success. Two hundred million books sold worldwide per annum; 13m shifted each year in the UK.
James Mum is not the only nut and I would suggest we wait patiently for the sales rush when your discovery is better known

I hope it will be discovered soon :-) I have sold a couple of others books here recently but still no M&B (sold 2 on Amazon this morning). I still have a few hundreds to go :-))

when you sell a regular line like Mills&Boon on Amazon are they the same books that you advertise on different sites

I have 6 Mills & Boon books in my collection. I get some odd looks when I tell people that. Then I tell them that they're old hardcovers from the days when they were all about quality fiction. All Jack London novels as it happens. LOL

Around 2.5 million M&B books were used in the construction of the surface of M6 toll motorway. Probably not the hardcore readership the publishers intended.

I never realised M&B was so popular, until I put a 'lot' i inherited on on ebay. There were approx 70 titles and it was by far and away my most popular auction ever. I was amazed at the bidding war, as I didn't think they would sell at all and just listed them on the off chance before i took them to the charity shop!!

I couldn't find this topic so I started one in the Historical and Romance thread, just to point out my 4 Mills and Boon I listed :-)

Thanks booksaplenty I enjoyed reading this old thread, I found by hovering over your name elsewhere.and so finding old pages easily. I hear on radio that M&B are galloping away in India, the choice of the upwardly mobile readers.

There is still snobbery about M&B I cannot think why?
The most successful publisher ever and it is complained about for repetition, and causes a laugh?

Heard today on BBC Radio 4 Lunch Hour that Mills and Boon have joined forces with the National Trust

Quite a lengthy feature on Ham House,setting for the first in tandem book a historical Romance. This will contribute 50p per sale towards the renewal os the silk hangings at Ham House. Coy remark that most of the historic houses will provide future settings

I think this is in the wrong section-Historical and romance is what Mills and Boon are not Classics!

Quoted from cathaven View Post

I have 6 Mills & Boon books in my collection. I get some odd looks when I tell people that. Then I tell them that they're old hardcovers from the days when they were all about quality fiction. All Jack London novels as it happens. LOL

I calculate that M & B are older than M & S and all agree that they have classic lines. If you are about to police the categories you must first agree in defining the term classic.
Mills and Boon were a well established non-fiction publisher after the war Cookery and Craft were their specialities.
They published P.G.Wodehouse and your favourite Georgette Heyer when they were in FitzWilliam Square . It is another lost industry They are now centred in Australia but still selling millions more per annum in UK than ordinary UK publishers. I have hardbacked Jack London too!
I followed the advice on another thread and looked up via Google some 20p copies I was amazed at the pretty pictures that resulted and the staggering prices for the older paperback books.

I think they sell more books annually world wide than the total vote in the recent election

Mills & Boon are translated into every language I have come across and I have seen them on sale in every country I have visited. Their Historical section is peculiarly English/American perhaps your definition of Historical Romance is excluding the millions of other Mills and Boon

According to Woman's Hour M&B have linked up with National Trust! It is not my fault or responsibility!
Those members who are anti M & B should not get incensed with others introducing topics under named Edwardian publisher. I did NOT introduce this topic.

I sold a lovely little Mills & Boon book on ebay recently, hardback with a dustjacket, the best of Flora Klickmann, the author of the flower patch series. I think it must have belonged to my mother as I have no recollection of ever owning it. It went to a lady in the US who was delighted, so it seems there is definitely a market for many varieties of the M&B books.
I would love to see some more of the older ones, like the Jack London ones Cathaven cites. It may be time to go and open a few boxes in the cupboards in the loft!
Good luck to everyone with selling yours :)

When you wish upon a star........

I do admit to enjoying the occasional Mills and Boon, but I haven't read one for quite a while actually. My friends always tease me when they see me with one!

The Brain of Britain one year was a M&B writer Sara Craven Google for M&B and you will be able to remove the superior smiles of the uninformed

My Mum is an avid reader. I have four carrier bags full of them...