Constance M. Evans (March 15, 1888 - ?)

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Born in Montreal, Quebec, on March 15, 1888, Constance May Evans studied art and music in London, England with private lessons. She enjoyed writing short stories and stories in serial format for popular magazines. She would, during her career, that stretched from the early 1930's through to the 1970's, produce some 125 romance novels both under her own name and the nom de plume of Mairi O’Nair and Jane Gray.

Constance M. Evans made her debut as Mills & Boon’s author in 1932 with The Pattern of a Star. She came from Darlington, and worked as a schoolteacher and a secretary for London North East Railroads. In 1933 Mills & Boon lauded a “new” author, Mairi O’Nair, although she was the pen-name for Evans. The House with the Orange Curtains by Mairi O’Nair was described as, “A story of thrills and charm, by a new novelist”.

Evans was the prototype Mills & Boon author of the new generation. Like the works of Denise Robins, the Evans/O’Nair novels were consistently good. She was also prolific. Evans wrote 112 novels for the firm, six in 1935 alone: three by Evans (Sandra Goes Downstairs, Secret Daughter, and Green Satin Girl), and three by O’Nair (The Girl With The X-Ray Eyes, Jennifer Disappears, and Peggy Paradine, House Agent). She repeated the performance in 1937 and in 1938, and from 1939 to 1941 wrote five novels a year.

In romances of that period, beauty in the heroine was optional, perhaps to enhance reader identification. She could be plain, or a stunner, and authors were often precise in their descriptions. In The Girl With The X-Ray Eyes (1935), private eye Joe Ballantyre sized up platinum blonde Pamela Wynne in his own term:

"The great criteria of womankind – in a man’s eyes, at least – her feet and ankles, were slender, too, and perfectly formed."

But in Little Brown Girl, Drusilla is clearly ugly, with her crooked mouth, "slightly aquiline nose", and skin tanned "almost to a gipsy brown... Her bare arms looked like small brown sticks, and the V of the frock showed her collar-bones."

The dashing hero, Sebastian, who "never noticed a girl at all unless she was pretty", decides to be chivalrous and "play the gigolo", since he "occasionally had generous impulses. He never passed a beggar without parting with a shilling, and he invariably presented stray cats with saucers of milk":

"Oh well, if you’re not a beauty, I expect you’re frightfully nice," Sebastian said cheerfully. "It wouldn’t do for every girl to be purely ornamental like Cousin Eva. Probably you’re the type who can darn socks and sew on buttons and make a decent cup of coffee."

"Oh, yes! I can sew and cook."

"Well, there you are! That’s jolly useful. Every man likes a girl to be able to cook and sew."

Not only could she cook and sew, but Drusilla is an heiress, so beauty, in this instance, did not really matter.

In 1945 Constance M. Evans wrote to Joseph W. Henley, Chairman of Mills & Boon, from her Darlington home of her special visit to London.

"What a tremendous thrill at the Author’s Tea when the Queen came in!" she said. "I had hoped it would be Winston Churchill when you said nobody knew the guest of honour but the Committee; but this was a bigger pleasure still."

It is not certain whether Queen Elizabeth or Winston Churchill were fans of Mills & Boon novels, nor whether this Author’s Tea was an annual affair.

Evans’s fondness of Henley was not long-lasting. In 1947 she complained to Alan Boon about a memorable exchange she and her sister had had with the Chairman. Her letter reveals Henley’s tactlessness:

"He nearly broke my heart and my very pleasant connection with you about two years ago, when I was up in London and took Cicely to see him. He was talking about your wonderful connection and the hold you had upon the public, and he said to Cicely, "I can tell you this, quite frankly, that if you, as a new author, sent us in a book now, we could sell as many of them, and it would be as popular as any of our authors who have been with us longer."...

For long time after I had returned home, I felt as though I had no further interest in writing for the firm! I said to Cicely, when we got out, "Well, if that’s all you get for writing for years and trying to improve as you go on, trying to make each book a little better than the rest, and then to be told that a little new untried author can have sales quite as large as yours, then it doesn’t seem to me worth while trying." Especially as I saw, on the bookshelves, a book by an author who joined you at the same time as I did, but changed over, later, that her latest book had reached the 67th thousand!...

I can’t imagine Mr. Boon greeting any of his old writers with such a statement! It had the most terrific effect both upon Cicely and myself."

Boon replied swiftly and with his usual charm, praising Evans and assuring her of the firm’s high regard. In response to those 67.000 copies of a novel sold by a rival publisher, Boon expressed his scepticism:

"When in these past years of acute paper shortage and production difficulty I have seen great sales advertised for some contemporary writers, I have honestly believed that some publishing firms employ copy-writers of imagination to make these claims. We do not fear comparison with any other publishing house, and we believe that when production grows easier many of our competitors will be very envious of our sales."

Evans was appeased, and went on writing romances for Mills & Boon for another 25 years, with ultimately 112 novels to her credit.

Mills & Boon tried mightily to identify potential problems before they could reach the Irish audience. Editors relied on readers and sales representatives for advice, and when there was a problem, acted quickly.

"One of our travellers has recently spent 17 days in Eire touring the country and speaking to librarians throughout the length and breadth of their land, and he, in his report, has emphasized the utmost importance of suiting the market in the way I have described," Alan Boon told to Constance Evans.

Evans has to rewrite her 1959 novel, Second Blossoming (as Mairi O’Nair), because the heroine, herself an illegitimate child, proceeded to have one.

"Don’t you tell me that in Ireland people are so good and ignorant of the facts of life!" an irate Evans wrote to Alan Boon. "I’ve known several Irishmen, and they don’t give me at all that idea! And, they only paid £10 for a serial!"

Nevertheless, Evans did change her manuscript to satisfy the Irish market: the heroine, Anne Berison, becomes an orphan, raised by her aunt and uncle. She marries a dashing Italian engineer, Dr Michael Alassio, and moves to Florence. But Michael is exposed as a murderer and is killed; Anne can then marry an American tourist, Alan Fyson (she admires his "good set of strong white teeth"). Their marriage will be a "second blossoming… much better and happier than the first". At the book’s end, Anne is still childless.

She was not as lucky finding a life long romance as some of her book heroes were. She never married although engaged three times. One of her suitors was killed, a second died from old war wounds and a third died of heart failure. She eventually adopted three daughters.

Constance M. Evans's Books on Amazon: Constance Evans

Source: Passion's Fortune: The Story of Mills & Boon


1934


1935 - Cover Art by Shields


1936


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1964