reviews_and_ramblings | Olive Norton (January 13, 1913

Olive Marion CLAYDON, Mrs NORTON (January 13, 1913 - 1973) was an Mills & Boon author of Doctor-Nurse romances. She wrote with her real name, Olive Norton, but also with the pen names of Hilary NEAL, Kate NORWAY and Bess NORTON.

Alan Boon’s most loyal author were passionately opposed to physical sex and, as such, against the trend in popular fiction (set by best-selling “racy” novels such as 19560s Peyton Place by Grace Metalious). In 1957 Olive Norton, new to the list as “Kate Norway”, heaped scorn on romance authors such as Sheila Reid, who, she claimed wrote:

“Positively obscene” stories, “all about seeking lips, and tongue tips, and the perfume that rose between her breasts, and chaps getting all hot and bothered fairly gnashing their teeth with desire”. She added: “I wouldn’t dare. I could make it very D.H. Lawrence if it was just a book, but when it’s a Mills & Boon book, or a serial, you don’t feel you can.” Boon trained, and picked, his authors well.

Winifred “Biddy” Jonhson, Mills & Boon editor, also kept careful checks on strong language and strong drink. In 1957 Olive Norton asked Boon for lessons in the Johnson style for her Doctor-Nurse books.

“I wish you would just tell me, from the Johnson etc. point of view, how far one can go with a) drinking, b) swearing, etc. I gather she deletes My God, and To Hell with it. It seems a bit odd that she can’t stand that, and yet she wants it all sexed up,” she wrote: “I specially want to know about drinking because I plan to let Bruce take Trudi to a country pub for a quick one in Chapter 2. Do Johnson women go to pub? I always think “country inn” sounds so ingenuous, especially if they go for supper, even if it’s bread and cheese and a gallon of wallop… Anyhow I shall write it that way for the book, and we can always make it a milk bar or something when we approach Johnson. (Not that I can quite see a milk bar in the middle of Middleton Woods – but there, maybe an itinerant one.)”

In his diplomatic response, Boon advised,

“I can only estimate what Miss Johnson does or does not like but on the whole I would say that it is better, so far as possible, to keep strong drink out of the stories, although a sherry quite often appears in Sara Seale’s stories. I do not think that public houses are much in fashion in that quarter. Swearing is not popular, but the expression “good grief” is quite often used.”

Norton did avoid pubs in her novels but not “strong” language. In her 1959 novel, Junior Pro, the heroine, junior nurse Lindsay Wood, is surprised when the hero, Dr James Bereford, explodes under pressure from a gathering crowd while tending an accident victim in the road:

“I heard James behind me say, “Blast those confounded photographers!” I realised that until tonight I had never heard him anything but polite and gentle, and never thought him capable of swearing. His voice was no longer mild. He sounded very angry.”

In the ’50 Corgi Books picked up Mills & Boon’s Doctor-Nurse titles for its 2s, “Corgi Romance” series, billed as “reprints of best-selling books originally published at higher prices, and now made available to a wider public at a minimum cost”. Among 1958 “best-selling” titles was Sister Brookes at Byng's by Kate Norway (Olive Norton, 1957).

As Harlequin’s purchases of rights to Mills & Boon novels accelerated, so did Mills & Boon’s profits, and authors’ earnings. In 1959, of the 54 novels Harlequin published, 34 were by Mills & Boon authors, largely those who specialized in “hospital stories”: Burchell, MacLeod, Stuart, Vinton, Gilzean, Marjorie Moore, Elizabeth Hoy, Kate Norway, and Caroline Trench.

It is not surprising to discover that a good number of new Mills & Boon authors in the 1960s specialized in Doctor-Nurse romances. These authors were proud of the renewed appreciation for the nursing profession which was generated by their popular books.

“At all events, there is a certain poetic irony in the fact that what was for generations a notoriously underprivileged profession – nursing – is now, best-sellers apart, about the most lucrative line in fiction,” wrote Olive Norton, herself (as “Kate Norway” and “Erica Bain”) an author of Doctor-Nurse novels, and a registered nurse. “In a sixpenny library a few days ago I heard a child say: “Three more nurse-books for Mum, please.” No titles. No authors. Just “nurse-books”. So long as the dust-jackets depicted a uniformed nurse and a clear-cut doctor-type, Mum was obviously going to be quite happy.”

By 1968 Olive Norton (a popular but not top author for Mills & Boon) had 26 Mills & Boon titles in print under her three pen-names. Her total sales had approached an astonishing 1.1 million copies.

Some Mills & Boon authors fought for a greater degree of realism in their hospital stories. In 1970 Woman’s Weekly rejected Casualty Speaking by Olive Norton, in which, they complained, “the baby bashing is too shocking (even though neither of the babies was killed – and one would have expected at least one to be)”. In her reply, Norton, a nurse, refused to compromise and eliminate the violence:

“Baby-bashing is all too common a feature of Casualty life, and I was indeed trying to show that it goes on all the time. One must leave one door open for the reader to go on thinking about – life isn’t nearly tied off at the end of a specific story: it goes on. And on.”

Indeed, in the published novel (1971), Norton offered a graphic account of an inner-city hospital, not unlike the medical drama programmes currently in vogue on television. Nurse Min Westwood, who “thoroughly enjoyed the hurly-burly of her work in the casualty department of a big city hospital”, expects the unexpected, including drug pushers who attack her. The “baby-bashing” concerned two children, aged 2 and 3, beaten up by teen thugs with bricks outside the local fish and chip shop. The attack, Min is told, is a consequence of having fewer policemen on the bear, due to “budget cuts”.

In the press release issued by Mills & Boon on 18 December 1971, the following statement is revealing:

“Although Harlequin’s experience has been primarily with fiction, the two firms are fully committed to the growth of the general and educational list. Both small in terms of staff, their plan is to publish as before in a flexible, personal manner. They believe that by bringing together the financial and marketing skills of Harlequin with the publishing expertise of Mills & Boon the two will form a group stronger and more effective than if they remained independent.”

This, then, was the vision of the two companies. In terms of romantic fiction – the product – this statement proved true. Upon hearing the news, Olive Norton thanked Alan Boon for