And Then He Kissed Her - Mills & Boon centenary exhibition

If you're planning a trip to Liverpool and you're interested in romance writing or cover illustration then call into Central Library to see the small 'And Then he Kissed Her' Mills & Boon centenary exhibition. In fact I'm not particulary interested in either but I still enjoyed it.

'And Then He Kissed Her' begins with Ros Burgin's corset sculpture made of out of words and is then a series of display boards in the main library area covering the history of the best-selling publishing firm alongside the social changes in Britain.
There is a dateline that explains major events in the world alongside those of M&B and then more detailed ones covering set periods.
There are boards devoted to 'The Early Years 1908- 1929', 'The Golden Age' 1930s-1940s', 'Changing Times 1950s-1960s', 'Expansion worldwide 1970s-1980s', and 'Mills & Boon today.' Here you can see how M&B moved with the times with examples including an interest in Doctor and Nurses stories coinciding with the creation of the NHS and how books became saucier following the arrival of the pill.
There are also folders including pieces from the M&B archives including wonderful writers biographies, 'Boon Mots' humorous extracts from unedited manuscripts (unintended double entendres), 'Happy endings' were you can see how styles and tastes have changed over the years, and photocopies of old catalogues showing the range of books M&B once produced including 'how to' books and cover art.
I really enjoyed seeing all the different styles and fashions and would love to know how they come up with so many different titles.
Some of the older cover art is fabulous and I would like to have seen more blow-ups of those. The boards include a fair amount of pictures and old adverts that really capture how Mills & Boon has adapted over its many successful years.
They release 56 new series titles each month, have 1,300 authors worldwide and a Mills & Boon novel is bought every three seconds. Incredible.
I was also really interested to read that they are now planning to move into India where they feel English-speaking Bollywood lover would really like the M&B formulas. I also loved the covers from the Japanese M&B books were they publish illustrated Manga versions of their romances - which are loved by men and women.
My other favourite bit was the biography of Frances Braybrooke who spoke of being 'well smacked' for using Nannie's typewriter at seven and then nearly being expelled for telling ghost stories at Midnight.
The author of 1944's 'Will You Go With Me' tells a wonderful story for all rejected authors. She wrote to an editor asking if he rejected her story could he suggest another place to try. He replied that he "did not hate anyone enough to carry out my suggestion."
Frances' career took off and two years later the same man asked her to write him a serial. Frances said: "I sent him his letter in reply pinned to a refusal."
Fabulous.

* 'And Then He Kissed Her' is on until September 12th when it moves onto Bury for the 15th.
Liverpool's Central Library is on William Brown Street and is open 9-6 Monday to Friday, 9-5 Saturday and 12-4 Sunday.

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