The Hindu : Front Page : When romantic fiction meets a game of rugby

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Wednesday, Jan 07, 2009
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When romantic fiction meets a game of rugby

Alison Flood

London: “Oh my God.” Her hand covered her mouth. She glanced at him in desperate panic. “They filmed me kissing you. And it’s up on the giant screens.”

Her voice rose, her cheeks were scarlet, and her reluctant glance towards the stadium ended in a moan of disbelief. “Oh God, I can’t believe this... and my hair is all over the place and my bottom looks huge, and — everyone is looking.”

His eyes on the pitch, Prince Casper watched with cool detachment as his friend, the England captain, hit a post with a drop-goal attempt. “More importantly, you just cost England three points.”

Rugby and romance are perhaps not the most obvious of combinations, but one that the world’s biggest romance publisher, Mills & Boon, and the Rugby Football Union believe will bear fruit. The pair have teamed up to publish a series of books featuring tall, dark and handsome rugby heroes - minus cauliflower ears - and their glamorous love interests.

Glitz and glamour

“Our mission statement is to do for rugby what Jilly Cooper did for polo — to give it an air of sexiness and glitz and glamour,” said series editor Jenny Hutton. “You don’t have to like rugby to like the books,” added Clare Somerville, Mills & Boon’s sales and marketing director. “They’ve got all the elements of a quintessential Mills & Boon romance: jet-set locations, hunky alpha male heroes and hot sex, but in a rugby context.”

Information on the rules of rugby for the non “rugby savvy,” along with tips on what to wear at matches, will be included, she said.

The RFU International Billionaires series launches with The Prince’s Waitress Wife — in which one hot scene takes place in the president’s suite at Twickenham, southwest London — on February 1, just before the start of the RBS Six Nations Championships.

In a later title, The Ruthless Billionaire’s Virgin, the heroine stands in to sing the national anthem, only to suffer a “wardrobe malfunction” from which she is saved by the chivalrous hero.

But readers should not expect guest appearances from real-life players such as Lawrence Dallaglio.

“We made a decision early… that that wasn’t going to happen,” said Jane Barron, licensing and marketing manager at the RFU. “There are no real people — it’s all imaginary.” — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009

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