According to Jamie Maclean, editor of Erotic Review, during a BBC interview talking about Mills and Boon’s big birthday.
I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean it the way it came out. He was actually there to say nice things about the genre, believe it or not.

Louise Allen, writer of the now infamous Virgin Slave, Barbarian King, along with Jamie Maclean, was also on the BBC this morning talking about this great mile stone.

The BBC presenter started out by reading out an excerpt of some historical romance novel, and I have to say, I found myself cringing as much as if he’d been reading the racy bits of a Lora Leigh book out loud.

It obviously wasn’t explicit, but I’m of the mind that romance books should not be read aloud, by anybody, let alone a sneering journalist.

Louise Allen came across very well, but she was very quick to make sure people knew that the excerpt that had been read aloud, wasn’t actually from one of her books. It may be just me, but I didn’t think she was overly pleased by the excerpt the BBC had chosen to read.

She talked about the misconception of romance books, saying that they had come a long way from the days of the bodice-rippers. (Funnily enough before they’d started talking, I bet TTG that somewhere in this interview, the words ‘Bodice-ripper’ and ‘misconception’ would be used.)

Jamie Maclean was questioned about whether or not he was surprised about how well erotic novels were selling, to which he said something like, the market was always there, it just needed a little prodding.

Anyway, had I been less non compos mentis, I would have noted down more of the pertinent comments, but quite honestly, I couldn’t be arsed.

It was a good spotlight though, and sneering journalists aside, it was nice to see romance books in the news.