A Fine Romance: Beyond the Bodice Ripper
‘Romance novels’ have something of a bad rap. Mills and Boons, Harlequins, steamy romps featuring rippling torsos and swarthy Adonises: they’re too often typecast as guilty pleasures. But there’s roaring trade in this neglected artform. Whether dressed up as ‘literary’ or unabashedly commercial, ‘chicklit’, teen fiction or a pulpy delight, there’s a fine art to convincingly writing about love.
The ABC’s Alan Brough grills writers who’ve made romance their business.
Featuring
Marion Lennox is the author of more than 80 romance novels since 1990. As a teenager Marion Lennox read into the small hours, by torchlight under the bedclothes. Night after night her parents would tug away the covers and tell her she’d never get anywhere in life if she kept reading romance. She a... Read more
Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of eighteen books for young people, including The Erasure Initiative and After the Lights Go Out. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it, establishing the Inky Awards at the Cen... Read more
Author of more than 42 romance titles, Stephanie Laurens has hit the New York Times bestseller list with her last 23 books. Stephanie Laurens began writing historical romances as an escape from the dry world of professional science. Her hobby quickly ballooned into a career with the publication of h... Read more
Alan Brough was born in New Zealand and is quite a bit older than he’d like to be. Alan has always loved books and, from an early age, wanted to be a writer. Then he and his Dad went to see Star Wars and Alan decided that, actually, he really, really, really, really, really wanted to be an act... Read more
Watch, Listen, Read
Listen
Origin of You: Mindy Meng Wang 王萌 and Sui Zhen
Watch
Jane Smiley in Conversation
Listen
Richard Flanagan: Question 7
Watch
In Conversation with Fern Brady: Strong Female Character
Watch
Mind Over Machine: AI, Creativity, Humanities, and the Arts
Listen