The real life rags to riches tale of the romantic author that never fo | Books | Entertainment

Ladies, if you’re looking for a dark and brooding man, the strong, silent type, to sweep you off your feet and wrap you in his muscular arms, be still your beating hearts. For yes, such a man really does exist, albeit in the pages of Anne Hampson’s bestselling romantic novels.

The late author wrote more than 125 novels for romantic fiction publishers Mills & Boon in a career spanning four decades, but her own rags-to-riches tale could have been taken straight from the pages of her books.

She was one of the brand’s most popular authors from 1969 to 1998 – also writing for their more racy and slightly more sexually explicit Silhouette and Harlequin ranges.

From humble beginnings as a seamstress living in a caravan stitching blouses for Marks & Spencer in the north of England, to owning mansions in England and Ireland, living in the high life in the Caribbean and driving a silver Mercedes, her own story really was a modern day fairy tale… although unlike her heroines, Anne never found true love.

At her height, each book, sometimes written in a little more than a month, was selling at least 100,000 copies in 14 different countries.

Now her vast body of highly-entertaining stories is being republished for the digital market in ebook form by Wyndham Books – bringing her work to a new generation of readers.

Anne died in 2014 and bequeathed her literary estate to fellow writer and close friend Marina Gottlieb Sarles, her neighbour in the Bahamas where Anne retired to, having travelled the world in order to accurately portray the glamorous settings of her novels.

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Express, Marina reveals how Anne’s early years were spent in poverty. “Anne had a very tough childhood with a violent mother and lived a rather lonely life,” she says. “She was regularly beaten with a strap. Her parents broke up and her mother married what Anne called a ‘ne’er-do-well’ and her mother made it difficult for Anne to see her father.

“They moved around a lot which was hard for Anne as just as a kindly teacher might take her under her wing, Anne would have to move on. She told me she only got married to escape her mother so it was hardly a great love affair. She was very private about her past which was why she never published her life story.”

According to Marina, who was left Anne’s unpublished autobiography and her entire literary estate, her friend’s marriage was as unhappy as her childhood.

In what sounds like a plot from one of her books, Anne told Marina her husband had an affair and tried to get Anne committed to a mental asylum. Only in real life there was no handsome doctor to step in and save her. Anne only discovered what was happening after answering a phone call from the asylum asking if she was ready and so she fled, leaving behind her only son.

“Unlike her heroines Anne never really found lasting love but she could look after herself and ended up being incredibly successful,” continues Marina.

Born on November 28, 1928, in Cuddington, Cheshire, Anne had two ambitions as a child: to teach and to write. By the age of eight she was writing plays that were performed in school by her classmates. However, by 15 she had left home and school and found herself making Marks & Spencer’s blouses at one shilling (5p) each.

When her marriage broke down she was homeless with £40 in her purse and so returned to the rag trade, living in a tiny caravan that belonged to a friend. Marina picks up the story: “She lived in the country where she could grow her own food.

“Then a friend of hers told her Manchester University were looking for older women for a writing course and urged her to apply. The principal of the university really liked her but said she couldn’t take her because she had no O-levels. Anne told me she ended up doing a milk round in the morning so she could study in the afternoon. She gained three O-Levels.”

Anne eventually graduated from Manchester University and worked as a teacher. Having sold her sewing machine for £15 to a neighbour, she began to write in her spare time. Her first novel, Eternal Summer, was published in 1969, at the age of 41, changing the course of her life forever. Four years later she became the launch author for the new Harlequin Presents line of romance novels which were more sensual than the previous line, Harlequin Romance.

However Marina insists Anne hated anything too racy with what she called too many “sex snippets” at the expense of real romance. When she was asked to name the ingredients to a successful romantic novel, Anne told an interviewer in 1974: “A glamorous setting, an attractive young heroine and the type of hero hundreds of women would like as a husband.”

Anne’s heroes include the haughty but handsome Charles Barrett, the masterful Shaun Wyndham, the formidable Gavin Huntly and the cultured but austere shipping magnate Paul Christos. Move over Mr Darcy! Sadly, Anne never did meet her own real-life hero.

She later moved to Killiney, an affluent coastal suburb of Dublin to another huge property for tax reasons, according to Marina, before eventually retiring to the Bahamas. “She had grown up in poverty and so really enjoyed the finer things in life when she could finally afford them. She drove nice cars and had lovely jewellery, good shoes and clothes. But she was very generous. She left me a beautiful gold and diamond bracelet. She was worth several million at one point which is amazing given where she came from. My husband is in real estate and sold her the property she owned next door to us in the Bahamas after she fell out with her original real estate agent here. She and I just clicked from the off.

“I felt like I was the daughter she never had and she had a wonderful relationship with my son Nikolai who sadly died earlier this year. We became her family. She was estranged from her own son for many years and I think it was all very difficult for them both.” Anne acted as a mentor to Marina who went on to publish her own novels.”She was such a good friend to me. She became part of our family here,” she smiles. Anne left all her hardback first editions to Marina when she died in 2014 but they were destroyed in 2019 in Hurricane Dorian. “I was so upset about that but I am delighted her books are being republished,” says Marina.

The books are being re-issued by Wyndham Books. Publisher and owner Ian Skillicorn explains: “Anne’s own story was like a modern-day fairy tale. Her heroines display the strength and determination that Anne must have had herself. I really admire how she turned her life around through pure grit and hard work.

“The books give readers romance, hope and a chance to escape into exciting worlds with likeable characters you can root for.”
She might have sometimes knocked a book out a month but Anne certainly didn’t skimp on her research.
“Anne travelled all over the world, and she used these experiences to set many of her books in exotic and far-flung places,” adds Ian.

“Her heroines are often ordinary young women who suddenly find themselves in an extraordinary situation: she might unexpectedly inherit a castle, get a surprise marriage proposal from a Greek tycoon, or even lose her memory.
“Anne’s heroes are the strong, silent type. They are often dark and brooding, from hot Mediterranean countries. They can be assertive, even arrogant, and fabulously wealthy. And of course they are always very handsome. No matter where the story takes place, you are guaranteed an extraordinary journey with thrills, twists and turns, but always assured of a happy ending.”

Just like Anne finally achieved in the beautiful Bahamas.

*Wyndham Books are reissuing all 126 of Anne Hampson’s titles, two a month, exclusively from Amazon. You can buy them to download and keep, or borrow them on Kindle Unlimited. Visit Wyndham Books for latest title releases. Introductory offer of 99p for first two e-books.