Two Men win romantic novel awards after 57-years

Men novelists have been named as winners of the Romantic Novel Awards for the first time, ending over 57-years in which female writers held a monopoly on affairs of the heart. Kerry Wilkinson and Marius Gabriel are first men to be honoured at the ceremony under their own names since the awards were founded in 1960. Wilkinson author of Jessica Daniel detective series won the young adult category with Ten Birthdays, the story of a teenage girl coping with bereavement. Marius Gabriel won the best historical novel award for The Designer, a 1940s Paris novel. Gabriel began his career in the 1980s writing Mills and Boon novels under a female pseudonym.

The Romantic Novel of the Year 1978 was Merlin’s Keep by Madeleine Brent, an adventure about a girl raised in the Himalayas by an English soldier. Brent ’s publisher picked up the award on her behalf, explaining that she was in Mexico. Years Later it emerged that Brent was actually Peter O’Donnell, creator of the Modesty Blaise comic strip. Dani Atkins won the overall Romantic Novel of the Year award for This Love. Jilly Cooper received the Outstanding Achievement award.