Anne Weale

The House On Flamingo Cay by Anne Weale

Biography

Anne Weale's writing career began in 1955. She authored nearly 90 novels, published primarily by Harlequin and Mills & Boon, but also wrote single title romance. Anne Weale, whose real name was Jay Blakeney, passed away on October 24, 2007.

Blakeney/Weale was a trained journalist who retired from reporting when her fiction income -- a combination of amounts earned as a Mills & Boon author and writing for magazines such as Woman's Illustrated, which serialized the work of authors -- exceed 1,000 pounds a year (Note 2). The author, who sold her first work to the publisher in 1955 at the age of 24, was a full-time fiction writer before she was thirty.

Her last novel, published in 2002 was The Man From Madrid. Weale was also a founding member of the The Romantic Novelists' Association. Weale continued to innovate even in the age of the Internet. She wrote a regular website review column for The Bookseller from 1998 to 2004, a UK publication, before starting her own blog Bookworm on the Net. Her final post is an apology for the lack of posts due to technology problems. She was working on her autobiography 88 Heroes...1 Mr. Right at the time of her death.

Writing Career

Weale, built on the legacy of authors such as Rosalind Brett (Lilian Warren), who emphasized intense sexual tension in her work. Her first book, Winter Is Past, was a story that notably captures the passion felt by the characters while never slipping into overtly sexual writing. Although Blakeney/Weale believed her writing was tame compared to younger authors, she actually maintained her position as an author who pushed the boundaries of sexuality in her work throughout her Mills & Boon career. In fact, the author treated readers to what is believed to be the first oral sex scene in her M&B title Antigua Kiss, published in 1982. Weale also wrote a masturbation scene in her novel Ecstasy, published in 1983. (Note 1)

The author was well-known for her strong settings, information she often gained from her travels. Her blog identifies her location as "mainly Europe," although she lived in England. The novels comprising the "Longwarden" series - Flora, All My Worldly Goods and Time & Chance - were among the favorites of Weale.

Many of the editorial policies in place in today's Category titles find their roots in the practices developed by Mills & Boon. For example, the use of proper names, including brand names, was carefully vetted by Joan Bryant. Blakeney/Weale learned firsthand of the dangers of using real names when a co-worker complained to the publisher about the use of his name for one of her characters in her debut novel Winter Is Past. Blakeney/Weale, though pleading innocence, eventually changed the character name and stated publicly that there was no connection between the fictional character and the real man. Interestingly, the man in question was more concerned with being "teased" about appearing in the novel than with the novel's content. (Note 3)

She wrote twenty books for Harlequin Presents, mainly during the 1980s before moving to the Tender line. Writing for the Harlequin Romance imprint, she published 42 novels. Weale also wrote under the name Andrea Blake.

Jane Holland, daughter of Charlotte Lamb, noted that her mother and Weale maintained a prodigious correspondence:

Charlotte Lamb and Anne Weale were both compulsive letter-writers, and after the invention of the fax machine (though before email became popular) they would fax each other sharp, witty, and incredibly detailed multi-page letters on a daily basis. Indeed, it was not unusual for them to send and receive these lengthy faxes several times in a single morning, knocking a topic like romance editing, the latest bestsellers, cover images for a new book, or even some hot publishing gossip back and forth like a couple of top-notch literary tennis players! I'm sure if my mother had lived to see the widespread use of email, their daily correspondence would have taken on new and even more epic proportions!

• Note 1 - McAleer, Joseph. Passion's Fortune: The Story of Mills & Boon (Oxford University Press, 1999), 288.
• Note 2 - ------. Passion's Fortune: The Story of Mills & Boon (Oxford University Press, 1999), 228.
• Note 3 - ------. Passion's Fortune: The Story of Mills & Boon (Oxford University Press, 1999), 223.

Books

• A Call For Nurse Templar - 1961 Harlequin Romance #578
• A Marriage Has Been Arranged - September, 1997 Harlequin Romance #3474
• A Night To Remember – 1996
• A Spanish Honeymoon - March, 2004 Harlequin Romance #3789
• A Touch Of The Devil - July 1982 Presents, #511
• A Treasure For Life - October, 1972 Harlequin Romance #1629
• All I Ask - June, 1964 Harlequin Romance #830
• All My Worldly Goods – 1987
• All That Heaven Allows - July 1983 Presents, #613
• Antigua Kiss - 1982
• Bartered Bride, The - September, 1998 Harlequin Romance #3520
• Bed Of Roses - June, 1982 Harlequin Romance #2484
• Bid Time Return - 1977
• Blue Days At Sea - July 1981 Presents, #444
• Castle In Corsica - 1960 Harlequin Romance #537
• Catalan Christmas - December 1988 Presents, #1133
• Christina Comes To Town - January, 1966 Harlequin Romance #981
• Desert Honeymoon - October, 1999 Harlequin Romance #3572
• Do You Remember Babylon? - May 1990 Presents, #1270
• Doctor In Malaya - May, 1965 Harlequin Romance #914
• Doctor's Daughters, The - 1963 Harlequin Romance #716
• Ecstasy - February 1984 Presents, #670
• Flora - 1983
• Faberge Cat, The - June, 1994 Harlequin Romance #3318
• Feast Of Sara, The - April, 1966 Harlequin Romance #1007
• Fields Of Heaven, The - January, 1974 Harlequin Romance #1747
• First Officer, The - November 1980 Presents, #395
• Footprints In The Sand – Mills and Boon Romance #3822 February 1993 and Harlequin Romance Subscription #155 October 1993
• Fountain of Delight, The - 1990
• Frangipani - December 1985 Presents, #846
• Girl About Town – 1965
• Girl From The Sea, The - January 1981 Presents, #408
• Girl In A Golden Bed - September 1987 Presents, #1013
• Hope For Tomorrow - March, 1965 Harlequin Romance #901
• House Of Seven Fountains, The - 1960 Harlequin Romance #553
• House On Flamingo Cay, The - 1962 (Mills & Boon); 1963 Harlequin Romance #743
• If This Is Love - February, 1964 Harlequin Romance #798
• Impatient Virgin, The - 1998
• Islands Of Summer - September, 1965 Harlequin Romance #948
• Last Night At Paradise, The - June, 1981 Harlequin Romance #2411
• Lonely Shore, The - July, 1966 Harlequin Romance #1027
• Lord Of The Sierras - January, 1975 Harlequin Romance #1848
• Lost Lagoon - June 1988 Presents, #1085
• Man From Madrid, The - April, 2004 Harlequin Romance #3793
• Man In Command, The - January, 1969 Harlequin Romance #1271
• Neptune's Daughter - October, 1988 Harlequin Romance #2940
• Never Go Back - 1995
• Never To Love - 1962 Harlequin Romance #644
• Night Train - March 1988 Presents, #1061
• Now Or Never - October 1978 Presents, #258
• Passage To Paxos - May 1982 Presents, #504
• Pink Champagne - August, 1992 Harlequin Romance #3216
• Portrait Of Bethany - October 1982 Presents, #541
• Rain Of Diamonds - October, 1981 Harlequin Romance #2436
• River Room, The - April 1979 Presents, #282
• Sea Change - 2002
• Sea Fever - June, 1991 Harlequin Romance #3132
• Sea Waif, The - July, 1967 Harlequin Romance #1123
• Seascape - 1995
• Separate Bedrooms - September 1979 Presents, #312
• Silver Dolphin, The - 1963 Harlequin Romance #767
• Singing Tree, The - March, 1993 Harlequin Romance #3257
• Sleepless Nights – 1999
• Sophie’s Secret - 1996
• South From Sounion - July, 1968 Harlequin Romance #1224
• Stowaway - October 1979 Presents, #317
• Sullivan's Reef - August, 1970 Harlequin Romance #1423
• Summer Lightning – 1971
• Summer’s Awakening – 1984
• Sun in Splendor, The - 1975
• Sweet To Remember - December, 1964 Harlequin Romance #879
• Tequila Sunrise - 1993
• Terrace In The Sun - December, 1966 Harlequin Romance #1067
• Thai Silk - February, 1991 Harlequin Romance #3108
• That Man Simon - July, 1971 Harlequin Romance #1512
• Three Weeks In Eden – 1964
• Time and Chance – 1989
• Turkish Delights - 1993
• Until We Met - September, 1964 Harlequin Romance #855
• Wedding Of The Year - Presents, #565 January 1983
• Winter Is Past - 1961 Harlequin Romance #582
• Worthy Of Marriage - December, 2000 Harlequin Romance #3633
• Yesterday's Island – August, 1983 Presents, #622
• Youngest Sister, The - 1997

On The Web

• EHarlequin - Biography at Harlequin Romance Authors
• Bookworm on the Net - Anne Weale's blog

Articles/Interviews/Remembrances

• [1] - Remembrance by Liz Fielding
• [2] - Remembrance from Kate Walker