Posted on 08/17/2008 2:31:04 PM PDT by forkinsocket
It is the stuff of escapist fantasy. A tall, dark and handsome type sweeps a cream-and-roses Home Counties heroine off her feet. In its 100 years of publishing, the exotic alpha male has been a staple of the Mills and Boon romance.
The tale of the passionate desert sheikh who sweeps secretary Janna Smith off her feet in Violet Winspear's 1970 romance Tawny Sands is perhaps the quintessential Mills and Boon story.
"His tone of voice was softly mocking, but she knew he didn't really jest. He was Raul Cesar Bey and the further they travelled into the desert the more aware she was of his affinity with the savage sun and tawny sands."
Shocking and suggestive, the tale of their love was wildly popular with a generation of readers.
It is also typical of a taste for foreign pleasures when it comes to romantic fiction.
It's 100 years since Mills and Boon published their first book. Sold in 109 countries and translated into 26 different languages, it is arguably Britain's best-known publishing house worldwide.
From early in the company's history, its winsome heroines have looked beyond Britain's shores to find love.
Nobody can quite identify the very first Mills and Boon romance to feature an exotic hero or location. But Dr Joseph McAleer, author of Passion's Fortune: The Story of Mills and Boon, says it was probably in the 1910s, following the lead of Hollywood cinema and its preoccupation with desert sheikhs and jungle escapades.
The fascination still exists today with the best-selling title of the June 2008 Modern Romance series being Desert King, Pregnant Mistress by Susan Stephens.
"Exotic locations gave great scope to authors to be a bit racier. It is usually an English person going into the tropics to experience this different culture," Dr McAleer says.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Yikes! This is someone to keep out of the good USA.
What about men who fall for foreign accents? Some of the guys I’ve dated have been disappointed that I don’t have a “sexy” Spanish accent.
In “A fish called Wanda” Jamie lee Curtis has this syndrome where foreign language turns her on. Very funny.
next mayor of LA
Can’t remember, but she wanted the guy to speak Italian or French to her.
Hmmm... can’t decide if that’s a sexy chick with a weapon, or a sexy weapon with a chick...
I would ask an Australian girl out just to hear her say, “No” (phonetically Nai-ooh). What a beautiful accent those people have!
those tall dark and handsomes with foreign accents lots of times didn’t get the memo about women being partners not possessions or the one about it ain’t cool to hit girls
It was John Cleese, and she got hot on Russian ................ FRegards
I prefer a pretty American girl all gussied upin short jeans, tight t-shirt, with her head stuck under her 64 corvette with wrenches, and that gleaming white colgate smile. Now that is a sweetie-pie for you!
Bullfrog
We have several male friends from different European countires who have come over and stayed with us over the years. They come, buy a motorcycle and vacation for 3-6 months traveling throughout the USA. I was amazed at the number of women that would walk up in the grocery store or really any other place and come on to them. I had never seen anything like it in my life. They had no idea whether I was a friend (which I was) or someone who might’ve been more than a friend but that never seemed to stop them!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3wVqNUf1YE&feature=related
We’re both sexy.
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