In 1908 - Gerald Mills and Charles Boon decided to form their own book publishing house in London. Initially Mills & Boon was an educational and general publisher although its books were mostly inclined towards fiction, sporting subjects and pastimes. Included in the large range of authors whose work the company published in those early days were P.G. Wodehouse, Jack London and Georgette Heyer.

The 1920's proved a turning point in the fortunes of Mills & Boon, heralding the most important step the company was to take. Following the Great War a new range of light romantic fiction books was introduced for sale to the burgeoning private lending library market which was rapidly coming to be dominated by the newsagency chain WH Smith and the pharmacy chain Boots. This new trend in reading soon spread to Australia and the other Commonwealth countries which constituted much of Mills & Boon's export market. Romantic fiction proved immensely popular, quickly becoming a vital and soon a dominant part of the Mills & Boon list.

Ironically it was the outbreak of World War II, which placed Mills & Boon on the path to becoming the powerful romantic fiction publisher it is today. Early in the hostilities, paper supplies for printing purposes were rationed drastically, prompting Charles Boon to concentrate solely on publishing romantic fiction, at least for the duration of the war.

By the early 1960's the WH Smith and Boots' lending libraries were beginning to close down as the public turned more and more to buying the now well-established, readily available and very reasonably priced paperback editions. Mills & Boon, faced with a rapid decline of its traditional market, investigated the possibility of publishing its hitherto hardcover editions in paperback format.

Mills & Boon turned to its North American associate Harlequin Enterprises for a way out of the dilemma. Initially Harlequin published a wide range of fiction and non-fiction but romantic fiction soon became the dominant activity. By 1964 it was Harlequin's sole publishing activity. In 1951 Mary Bonnycastle had realised the potential of Mills & Boon's books which were selling in the North American market in their hardcover editions. Buying the rights for North America, Harlequin began publishing the Mills & Boon stories in paperback and found a huge market ready to buy.

Harlequin Enterprises became a public company in 1968, just prior to its move from Winnipeg to Toronto a year later. The phenomenal growth of Harlequin was fuelled by techniques more akin to the mass marketing of consumer goods pioneered by the likes of Proctor & Gamble than staid world of book publishing. Even so, the growth of the 1960's was minor when compared to the expansion of the 1970's and 1980's when sales rose from 3 million copies annually to in excess of 200 million by 1988.

Much of Harlequin's growth in the 1970's was due to its expansion into overseas markets. The first significant move took place in 1971 when the Boon family signalled its desire to sell the Mills & Boon business. Harlequin became the parent company of the publisher whose books had given it such phenomenal growth. Mills & Boon Australia, established in 1974, was the group's first foray into marketing outside Britain or North America. When it was decided to publish Mills & Boon and Harlequin books in languages other than English, Dutch was the pioneer language chosen. A Harlequin subsidiary opened in Amsterdam in 1975.

The opening of the Netherlands operation coincided with the takeover of Harlequin Enterprises by Torstar Corporation, publisher of Canada's largest metropolitan daily newspaper The Toronto Star. This signalled a further period of expansion with the establishment of other subsidiaries and joint ventures in Europe and Japan. It was in the Japanese market Harlequin scored one of its greatest successes. In contrast to the failure of many other western publishing houses in Japan, Harlequin was an instant success.

The establishment of Mills & Boon Australia in 1974 gave the company its first formal marketing presence in this country although Mills & Boon books had been sold here for many years by wholesalers and importing booksellers. The opening of the Sydney office led to more formalised marketing arrangements and an agreement with William Collins to distribute and represent Mills & Boon throughout Australia. Mills & Boon established its own sales and merchandiser force in early 1982 and in 1984 Gordon and Gotch replaced Collins as distributors. Since 1991 distribution has been handled by Network Distribution Company in Australia, and by Gordon & Gotch (NZ) Ltd in New Zealand.

In the 1990's the Harlequin brand was added to the well known Mills & Boon name. Today, the Harlequin Mills & Boon brand dominates the paperback romance market in Australia and New Zealand, and wherever English language romance paperbacks are sold in Asia.

Today the company is known as Harlequin Mills & Boon and we are the undisputed leader in Australian and New Zealand romantic fiction sales with a market share that continues to grow. Romantic fiction represents the largest segment of the paperback mass-market fiction, with a 36% share. More than one in five paperbacks sold in Australia is published by Harlequin Mills & Boon. Harlequin Enterprises (Australia) publishes almost 700 new volumes annually, second only to North America and sales total around 5 million copies each year, more than 400,000 books each month.