I have a collection of vintage Mills and Boon novels. The oldest book in my collection is ‘With this Ring’ by Fanny Heaslip Lea, published in 1926. Next year, I will write about the romance novel itself to mark its 100th anniversary.
What is fascinating about the book, other than its age, is the ‘Selection from Mills & Boon’s Catalogue’ at the back of the book. I’d known that M&B began publishing craft books and westerns but I had no idea of the variety of titles they had before they settled on romance as their main genre (I understand romance sold well during the war, so they concentrated their efforts in that direction – a public service as far as I’m concerned).
What caught my eye is the title: ‘Where Did I Come From, Mother?’ by Millicent Gordon.
Perhaps this is a natural follow on to romance books?
Endorsed by the Primitive Methodist Monthly Circular, the Jewish Guardian and Aberdeen Press, its approach of describing how seeds needs preparation time before becoming seedlings obviously had broad appeal. This book might even have helped me the first time I rather clumsily approached the subject with my own children!
I’ve picked out a few of the (mainly non-fiction) titles to see whether they might still be useful in the mid 2020’s.
Other quaint titles (and interesting authors) include:
- The Romance of English Almshouses by Mary Raphael. This is described as ‘one of the most fascinating subjects of to-day.’ Hard to imagine that it would greatly excite our interest these days.
- ‘First Steps to Rackets’ by E. B. Noble and the Hon C.N. Bruce. ‘The book will certainly become a classic in the world of rackets.’ It may well have. Between them the authors were Amateur Singles, and Amateur Doubles Champions, variously over seven years. These days we may well ask, ‘What is Rackets?’ My first though was about crime, rather than sports. Shows what I know.
- ‘A Simple Guide to Wireless,’ by Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon. ‘For all those whose knowledge of electricity is childlike.’ Count me in. My electrical knowledge wouldn’t fill a sentence, much less a book. I expect I would learn from this book even today.
- ‘New York in Seven Days’ by Helena Smith Drayton and Louise Bascom Barratt. Described by The Times as a ‘lively little book’. With one large map, and six sectional maps, even I could get lost with this book. It would be interesting to see how much of 1926 New York remains in situ.
- ‘Swiss Mountain Climbs’ by George D. Abraham. ‘The present work meets the want of a conveniently small and concise guide to the rock climbs in Switzerland.’ This ‘small and concise’ book was obviously a precursor to an app! I maybe might possibly read this…if I were climbing anything in Switzerland. Which will never happen.
- The only fiction choice I made is from the Half-Crown Library: ‘The Virgin’s Treasure’ by Louise Gerard. The obvious connection is to the ‘Treasured Secrets’ series I’m writing, and there may be some things in common, although I’m sure the stories would be vastly different.
There are obvious differences as well between today’s romances and those from before 1967. I’ll expand on those in another blog.
Add comment
Comments