Romance History: Jean S. MacLeod

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Jean S. MacLeod began writing for Mills and Boon in 1939, aged 31, shortly after she gave birth to her only child, David Walton. Ms MacLeod, who also wrote as Catherine Airlie, continued writing until the age of 87, by which time she had clocked 130 novels.

Jean says: “Money was not a motivation for writing – we were only paid on a royalty basis,” she insists. "Even now I still pick up around £68 a year in royalties. But the joy of knowing people were, and still are, enjoying my books is payment enough. Michael Boon, the original proprietor’s son, gave me advice that shapes my style to this day. He told me never to write anything a mother wouldn’t want her daughter to read.”

She continued to write for Mills and Boon after the publisher was taken over by American company Harlequin, but was uncomfortable with its request to "sex up" her books. And 70 years after her work first hit the shelves, she is proud to say: “I never use the word ‘sex’ in my novels – that is not what romance is about. It’s about love and emotion.”

Jean was a co-founder of the Romantic Novelists’ Association with that doyenne of the bodice-ripper, Barbara Cartland, and she recalls: “Mills & Boon always had a champagne tent on Ladies’ Day at Ascot for their authors. One year Barbara sauntered over and dismissively asked, ‘Wearing the same outfit twice, Jean? Are things really that hard?’. I didn’t dignify it with a response – she was known for her sharp remarks.”

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Comments

[cicirossi.livejournal.com]

oh, man, that is a great cover

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

I don't know the name of the artist, but it's clearly the same for a lot of covers by Mill&Boons of that period. Elisa