Beyond Guilty Pleasure: Mills & Boon Romance

Tuesday 24th February 2026 - 17:30 to 19:30

Seminar Room 2, Robert Hardy Building, Lincoln Bishop University LN1 3DY

Whether you’re a devoted romance reader, an aspiring writer, or simply curious about the genre’s cultural impact, join us for an evening exploring the world of Mills & Boon romance fiction.

Hear from local Mills & Boon author Jenni Fletcher, romance scholar Dr Amy Burge, and Mills & Boon editor Annie Warren as they discuss the enduring popularity of romance novels, how the genre has evolved since its formation, and the cultural impact of Mills & Boon as an iconic romance publisher.

The discussion will offer behind-the-scenes insights into writing, editing, and researching romance fiction, followed by an audience Q&A. Readers, writers, and the romance-curious are all warmly welcome.

Panellist Bios:

Jenni Fletcher has written 22 historical romance and sports romance books for Mills & Boon and teaches creative writing at Lincoln Bishop University. She has a BA in English from Cambridge, an MA on Women and Literature from Hull and a PhD on spectral female influences in the works of Joseph Conrad. She has been nominated for 6 Romantic Novelists’ Association awards and has won twice for Best Short Fiction (for Miss Amelia’s Mistletoe Marquess and Cinderella’s Deal with the Colonel). She has also written 5 Young/New Adult books for Penguin.

Dr Amy Burge is Associate Professor in Popular Fiction at the University of Birmingham. She specialises in researching romance fiction. She is the author of Representing Difference in the Medieval and Modern Orientalist Romance (Palgrave, 2016) and co-author of The Bonkbuster: Women’s Popular Reading in the Long 1980s (Bloomsbury, 2026). She has published work on romantic fiction and migration, masculinity in Nigerian romance novels, and chick lit from the Middle East. She is Executive Editor of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies.

Annie Warren is an editor on the Mills & Boon Historical Romance team. She studied French and Italian at University College London and then completed an MA in Publishing, during which time she wrote her dissertation about the future of the romance novel. After graduating, Annie spent time teaching as well as working as a travel editor before her love of love led her to her natural home at True Love Towers. Annie is always looking to acquire fresh and intriguing new voices; she’s especially interested in sapphic and queer romances, and also has a soft spot for a rugged hero!

Dr Lucinda Newns (chair) is a Senior Lecturer in English at Lincoln Bishop University, where she teaches an undergraduate module on popular fiction, including Mills & Boon romance novels. She is the editor of a forthcoming special issue of the journal Literature, Critique, and Empire Today on global genre fiction and co-editor of the forthcoming book Muslim Women’s Popular Fiction (Manchester University Press). She has also published work on environmental literature and migration writing, including her book Domestic Intersections in Contemporary Migration Fiction: Homing the Metropole (Routledge, 2019).

Part of Literary, Cultural, and Historical Conversations @ Lincoln Bishop University 2026, a series hosted by the Re-Presenting the Past RKE Unit.

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