Publisher · founded 1908 · Richmond
Mills & Boon
Mills & Boon is a London romance publisher founded in 1908, known for its 1930s lending-library hardbacks and owned since 1971 by Harlequin, now part of HarperCollins.
- Editions tracked
- 2,330
- First editions
- 3
- Books
- 2,312
- Years
- 1910 to 2017
About Mills & Boon
Mills & Boon is a British romance publisher founded in 1908 by Gerald Mills and Charles Boon, two former Methuen employees, and now an imprint of Harlequin within HarperCollins.
It started as a general publisher with £1,000 of capital, issuing travel, craft and educational books as well as fiction. Its first book was Sophie Cole's romance Arrows from the Dark. Early authors included Hugh Walpole and P. G. Wodehouse, and between 1912 and 1923 it published many of Jack London's adventure books in Britain.
Gerald Mills died in 1928, and from the 1930s the firm concentrated on romance. Its hardback love stories, nicknamed the brown books after their bindings, sold strongly through lending libraries. Paperbacks followed in the 1960s, and later authors included Violet Winspear.
Harlequin of Canada began reprinting Mills & Boon titles for North America in the late 1950s, and the Boon family sold the company to Harlequin in 1971. Harlequin later passed to the Torstar Corporation and then to HarperCollins. Based in Richmond, London, Mills & Boon releases more than 100 titles a month across lines such as Modern, Historical and Medical.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Mills & Boon's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Mills & Boon first editions
Authors
Series
Books
Published by Mills & Boon
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Mills & Boon first edition?
How many Mills & Boon books does MyVolumes track?
We track 2,330 editions published by Mills & Boon, 3 of them first editions, across 2,312 books.
Where these facts come from
- Mills & Boon, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Our History, Mills & Boon (millsandboon.co.uk)
- Mills & Boon Archive and Library, University of Reading Special Collections (collections.reading.ac.uk)
- Favourite finds: the first Mills & Boon, University of Reading Special Collections blog, 2014 (blogs.reading.ac.uk)
- Mills & Boon rare books, Lycanthia Books (lycanthiabooks.com)
- Harlequin Enterprises, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- First Editions: Why, When and How, BookAddiction, 2024 (bookaddiction.co.uk)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 21 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.