Mills & Boon
 To enter the world of Harlequin is to travel the globe. In just over 45 years this 
 company evolved from a small Canadian reprint house into the largest publisher of 
 romance fiction in the world. Now an international concern, Harlequin is known 
 throughout North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Japan and 
 China for its unique brand of romance fiction, currently translated into 23 languages
 and sold in various formats in over 100 international markets.
 Harlequin Books was founded by Richard Bonnycastle in 1949. Specialising in reprints 
 of British and American books, the first 400 titles under the Harlequin imprint were a 
 varied collection of westerns, thrillers, craft books and classics. It was the inclusion 
 of romance titles which formed the foundations of Harlequin's development into a leading 
 publisher of romance fiction.
In 1957 Harlequin began buying the rights to romance novels from the English firm 
Mills & Boon Ltd. So successful were these Doctor Nurse romances that the Canadian Company 
began to concentrate on selling them and by 1964 romance fiction comprised the entire 
Harlequin list.
In the late 1960s Harlequin began a period of extraordinary expansion that propelled it into 
the international stage following the 1971 acquisition of Mills & Boon Ltd, then the largest 
romance publisher in the English speaking world. By the end of the decade, Harlequin's overseas 
acquisitions and partnerships were taking the company's brand of love stories to bookshelves 
around the world. In 1975 Harlequin Holland was opened, followed by a joint venture in Germany. 
Harlequin France, Sweden, Japan and Greece soon followed as well as another joint venture in 
Italy. In 1981, Canadian communications giant Torstar Corporation completed its purchase of 
the dynamic Harlequin operation. Expansion into the overseas market continued with the 1990s 
seeing the opening of offices in Eastern Europe. Harlequin Hungary was soon followed by Poland 
in 1991 and the Czech Republic in 1992. Books are now also sold under license in Russia, Latin 
America, and under a co-operative publishing agreement in China.