A Lifelong Romance by Anna Campbell
I think I was born a romance reader. Like other writers who have replied to that eternally interesting question – what got you started reading romance? – I loved fairytales when I was a kid. In fact, I still find myths and legends and fairytales fascinating. I often tell people who ask about my books that I write adult fairytales and I think that’s true – you get that same story arc but with a lot more ‘interesting’ stuff in between!
I distinctly remember the first time I read a romance novel. It was about 6pm one winter’s night and my eight-year-old self was driving my mother mad with my incessant chatter. Yes, I know anyone acquainted with me won’t believe this part of the story at all!
I was a really booky kid and I’d read everything age-appropriate in the house. In desperation to find something to distract me, my mother reached to the back of a wardrobe and pulled out a little paperback called A TOUCH OF SILK.
This Mills & Boon (now a division of Harlequin) by Australian romance author Joyce Dingwall changed my life. It was about an Australian nurse who took a job looking after the daughter of the hero, a very elegant and aristocratic Portuguese millionaire who lived in Hong Kong but had business interests in Macao.
For a girl from dull but comfortable middle-class Australia in the 1960s, the exoticism of this story captivated me. Even more than that, I loved the focus on the relationship and I’m still a sucker for that story of how a relationship develops between two people who must overcome obstacles before they get their happy ending.
I remember the nurse and the Portuguese senhor (I distinctly remember it was ‘senhor’ not ‘senor’, even after all this time) kissed and made up in Hyde Park in Sydney, a city the family had recently visited on what was a major excursion for us at the time. I remember my sigh of satisfaction as they promised each other eternal love and a life together. I remember immediately driving my mother mad to give me more books like that.
And I’m still avidly reading books like that! Well, perhaps now there’s a bit more than a kiss involved…
Vanessa said:
Great post, Anna! Loved reading about your affair with romance novels. As it happens, right now I’m looking at the very Hyde Park where the nurse and the ’senhor’ found their happily ever after!
Annie West said:
Anna, isn’t it fantastic the way the first romances you read stuck in your mind? I have fond memories of Mills and Boon (now Harlequin) stories. The aristroctratic Spaniards and Portuguese, debonair Englishmen, flashing-eyed Italians etc etc. Contemporary heroes, historical heroes and heroes of gothic romances all played a significant role in my teenage years, I couldn’t understand why every woman and girl I knew wasn’t hooked on romance too. Now most of the women I know are!
Don’t you think we’re lucky to be writing these stories ourselves now?
Christine Wells said:
Hi Anna! Lovely post. Of course, I loved fairytales, too, but I think my first romance was Anne of Green Gables. I used to love it when Gilbert Blythe came on the scene!
Love the ’senhor’. In Hyde Park, no less! How exotic!
Anna Campbell said:
Vanessa, I love Hyde Park in Sydney. I adore the Archibald Fountain. Was rather surprised when someone said to me it’s considered rather naff in highbrow circles!
Annie, we’ve spoke about this before, but those first romances we read were just so great, weren’t they? I was a huge Anne Mather devotee. She was on the hotter end of the line at that stage! Makes me laugh now when I consider what the love scenes are like!
Anna Campbell said:
Oops, that should be ’spoken’. It’s very early in the morning here in Australia. Obviously my internal spellcheck hasn’t woken up yet!
Christine, I never really got into Anne of Green Gables. I remember trying but somehow they just didn’t grab me. I loved the TV adaptations, though! And yeah, Gilbert!