Penny Jordan - Telegraph In books such as The Dutiful Wife, The Reluctant Surrender and The Sicilian Boss's Wife, Penny Jordan (whose real name was Penny Halsall) delighted her overwhelmingly female readership with tales of all-consuming love affairs between masterful men and swooning heroines: "She risked a second nervous look at the strong, almost cruel lines of his face," ran a typical passage, "the nose that spoke of a lineage that went back to the days when Wales was the birthplace of men born to lead others; the tight aristocratic line of his jaw; and most of all, that almost shockingly sexual, rich, thick hair that for some reason had her fingers curling into protestingly protective small fists as she fought against their instinctive urge to reach out and touch it." As she got into her stride, Penny Jordan churned out 5,000 words a day, writing four Mills & Boon novels a year, as well as two historical sagas for HarperCollins (as Annie Groves). She developed a routine, bashing out stories on her electric typewriter on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving the rest of the week free for household chores. Her advice to would-be romantic fiction writers was to set the scene and grab the readers attention by the end of the first page. The first paragraph of her Bride for His Majesty's Pleasure, for example, contains the lines: "'And if I refuse to marry you?" Although she did her best not to allow her feelings to show, she was conscious of the fact that her voice trembled slightly. Max looked at her. I think you know the answer to your own question."" Ruthless ruler/virgin bride was one of several popular stock scenarios. Penny Jordan admitted, however, that she found it difficult to write the sex scenes (Mills & Boon couples usually do it at least twice per book), observing that it is difficult to find new ways of writing about male and female genitalia without sounding silly. In any case, the sex was not the most important aspect: "The appeal of romance is love," she declared. And that's universal. She was born Penelope Jones in Preston, Lancashire, on November 24 1946 and educated at Todmorden Grammar School. As a child she made up stories to entertain her sister, and by her teens was an avid reader of Mills & Boon romances. After leaving school she worked as a typist in a bank in Manchester. One day she spotted an advertisement in Woman's Weekly, appealing for new writers for Mills & Boon. She sent off a manuscript and to her surprise it was accepted. For a while she continued to work for the bank, writing in her spare time. For the first five years she wrote one short book a month for 10 months each year. Her first novel, Falcon's Prey, was published in 1981. She also published historical fiction under the names Caroline Courtney, Melinda Wright and Lydia Hitchcock. Though she became Mills & Boon's most prolific author, she led a modest life at her cottage in rural Cheshire: "It's not very glamorous. People certainly wouldn't think so if they saw me sitting in my woolly socks at the kitchen table. Many times I sit at the typewriter and think: 'Why am I doing this?"" While her books had happy endings, her own life was marked by tragedy. In 2002 her husband, Steve Halsall, died of oral cancer aged 56, after a long battle with alcohol. They had decided against having children. Penny Jordan, born November 24 1946, died December 31 2011