Documentary reveals the real men behind the Mills & Boon romance novels
ROGER Sanderson is a father of five who loves mountaineering, cars and weight training. He is also one of Mills & Boon’s most successful ‘female’ writers.
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ROGER Sanderson loves mountaineering, cars and weight training. He is also one of Mills & Boon’s most successful ‘female’ writers.
Still solidly built, but thinning on top like most men of his age, the 76-year-old father of five says that when he sits down to write one of his romance novels he can, “for a while, be a 28-year-old woman in love.”
He publishes his books under his wife’s name, Gill Sanderson — and now has 50 romance novels his belt — many of them bestsellers. As Mills & Boon’s only male author, Roger has sold well over three million romantic novels in 26 countries in his female guise.
“Everyone can see a bit of believability in Mills & Boon — that’s what readers cling to. But you’d be amazed at the trouble I go to [in order] to find the right names,” Mr Sanderson reveals in the above documentary Guilty Pleasures.
“I mean, I’m called Roger. I could never have a hero called Roger. Roger would be a happy, fat second-string hero.”
Mr Sanderson admits that the public’s idea of a romance writer is often far from the reality. “Quite a lot of [Mills & Boon writers] are past the first flush of youth. If there were a couple of qualities needed I would say one is intelligence and another is steely determination,” he says.
“You do not mess easily with a Mills & Boon writer.”
The documentary also reveals what it’s really like for the men who strike those sensual poses for the book covers.
“I’m a cowboy a lot. A lot of swords. Shirtless with a sword. I’ve never read one [of the books] though, because they’re skewed for a female audience. But I will skim through to the juicy parts,” says Stephen, a male model interviewed for the documentary.
Most telling of all is the fact that Stephen, the romance writer’s image of the perfect man, spends much of his time on Guilty Pleasures despairing about being single.
You can watch the complete documentary above.
Originally published as Documentary reveals the real men behind the Mills & Boon romance novels