Norwich Mills & Boon writer Pam Brooks celebrates 100 novels

She has lost count of the number of smouldering looks, passionate proposal scenes and happy-ever-after wedding days she has been part of – but she knows she has written 100 romantic novels for Mills & Boon.  

Her 100th novel is published this month.

Pam began writing medical romances for Mills & Boon when her baby daughter was ill in hospital over Christmas 2000. A Baby of Her Own was accepted on Choe’s first birthday and published on her second. 

Pam Brooks with her first Mills and Boon novel (Image: Denise Bradley)

Pam writes as Kate Hardy and has set many of her novels in Norfolk. 

She was just 12 when she read her first novel by the publisher and fell in love with romantic fiction. “I’d written stories ever since I can remember, and that book crystallised for me that I wanted to write love stories with happy endings,” she said. 

That is still what she loves most about writing romances. “There’s a guaranteed happy ending – and my readers tell me that when they’re feeling low, they read one of my books and it makes the world feel like a better place. Being able to write a book that does that for people is the best job in the world.” 

Several of her books have won national awards, including the Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) romance prize for Breakfast at Giovanni’s, and A Will, a Wish and a Wedding, which was inspired by Norfolk butterflies and butterfly experts, and won the RNA shorter romantic novel award. Judges called it: “Everything you could possibly want from a romance - sweet, sexy, captivating and a book that makes you laugh and cry.” 

Ballet-loving Pam was also delighted to be presented with a national literary prize by Darcey Bussell. 

Dance, and several of her other passions including music and cookery, often find their way into her novels and she has also written local history books. 

Pam grew up in Attleborough and started out as an accountant in Norwich before moving into marketing and then becoming a full-time writer. She lives in Costessey with her husband of 30 years.  

Her favourite part of the county to set her romances is along the north Norfolk coast. “Wells-next-the-Sea appears quite a lot in my books. The bluebell woods at Blickling and Foxley (and at Costessey) make an appearance, and often there’s a garden which might have elements from Blickling, East Ruston or Hoveton Hall.” 

She has also enjoyed exploring the literary potential of more distant settings including Paris, Sorrento, Rome, the Italian Lakes, Iceland and Vienna – and: "Lots of what we call fake Mediterranean principalities, meaning we can make up our own laws; very handy for a ‘royal’ book!"

Her 100th book, Tempted by Her Fake Fiance, will be launched at a party at Waterstones, Norwich, in the same building the first was launched in, two decades ago.  

Pam Brooks 100th Mills and Boon novel by Kate Hardy (Image: Mills & Boon)

Between the two launches Pam's romances have sold millions of copies and been translated into more than 20 languages. 

Every plot is different. “I was speaking at a book event not that long ago, and someone came up to me afterwards and said, ‘If you’ve written a hundred books, they must all be the same.’ I was quite upset because that’s really not true. Romance novels need characters, conflict and a resolution but even if you use similar plot devices (like my favourite one, the fake fiancé), the characters’ backstory and how they deal with the conflict (the reason they can’t get together, and the emotional journey they go on to resolve that conflict and reach the happy ending) will make the books different.” 

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However, despite 30 years of happy marriage, she has not been able to base them on real life. “For a romance writer, I’m a bit hopeless at romantic gestures and so is Gerard, my other half! Having said that, I keep an eye out for his favourite musicians and buy tickets to see them because he loves going to shows, and he buys me flowers every week because he knows I love flowers on my kitchen window. And he did surprise me on our 30th wedding anniversary with the most gorgeous pendant with a pearl – I had no idea he even knew the 30th was a pearl anniversary!"

Although she has come up with 100 (and counting plots) she said: “I never, EVER get to choose my title. The marketing team does this (and I rant hugely when they stick me with a ‘billionaire’ title – I mean, you look at the real-life millionaires and how many of them are gorgeous?)”  

Pam and Gerard, who have two grown-up children and two spaniels, met on a blind date organised by Gerard’s best friend, when Pam was working as a barmaid in Attleborough during her university holidays.  And while she never models her characters on real people she admitted: “I do like giving my heroes gorgeous blue eyes as a nod to my husband!”