books on solid, worthy subjects (eg travel and crafts) and published well-known authors like PG Wodehouse and Hugh Walpole; but it always had a keen eye on the bottom line. Its first romantic novel, Arrows in the Dark, was such a success that exploiting the romantic longings of its female readers soon became its stock in trade. "I'm certain the bulk of novels are devoured by women before they reach the men," noted Charles Boon in 1913, who made the use of new marketing techniques a key part of the brand.

What sort of techniques?

It was Charles Boon who started to develop a "personal" touch with the readers by offering a "souvenir chapter" free to any home address, a policy refined by Harlequin in the 1970s, when they started delivering books directly to readers' doorsteps, along with special gifts and reader questionnaires. Mills & Boon seldom misses a trick to attract new readers: for example, when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, it sent staff into the streets to hand out 750,000 free copies to the romance deprived women of East Germany. And it is also renowned for the way it attracts authors to its stable: Charles Boon, determined to make the company "the Promised Land" for budding writers, started the idea of offering housewives the chance to become pioneer novelists, and today the company still receives around 1,500 unsolicited manuscripts a year. Every one of them is read by its team of 20 editors, though only a dozen are accepted. Writers come in all shapes and sizes: the renowned Jan Tempest, for example, was an elderly recluse (real name: Irene Swatridge) who ran a Devon sheep farm.

And is M&B likely to continue for another century?

Almost certainly. Although regularly slated by feminists for perpetuating the idea of the dominant male, its strong, masterful heroes continue to find a vast audience. Back in 1970 one of its popular authors, a shy spinster called Violet Winspear, caused an outcry by saying that her male characters "must frighten and fascinate. They must be the sort of men who are capable of rape." That may have overstated it, but the editor's instructions to would be authors are still clear on the point. The hero "must have achieved a certain level of wealth and success. He's alpha, in that he's strong; he oozes beguiling confidence and charm (he's got a great body!)". And there's good reason for this intransigence. When the company tried an experiment with ordinary-Joe "beta" males ("like Tom Hanks") as heroes, reader enthusiasm was dismal.

Can it survive the credit crunch?

Undoubtedly. It has always done well in hard times: it prospered during WWII and regards the Great Depression as its golden age. If there's one industry likely to boom when things are going bust, it's escapism.