Bonkbuster

Jilly Cooper, a romance writer known for the Rutshire Chronicles , was considered "the queen of the bonkbuster".

Bonkbuster (a play on "blockbuster" and the verb "to bonk") is a term coined in 1988 by British writer Sue Limb to describe a subgenre of commercial romance novels in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as their subsequent miniseries adaptations. ^{[1] [2] [3]} In 2002 the Oxford English Dictionary recognized this portmanteau, defining it as "a type of popular novel characterized by frequent explicit sexual encounters between the characters." ^[1] In 2016 Jilly Cooper, who was called "the queen of the bonkbuster", ^[4] suggested that the term ought to be updated to "shagbusters" as "bonk" felt out-of-date. ^[5]

Genre history

Although the term has been used generally to describe "bodice-rippers" such as Forever Amber (1944) by Kathleen Winsor, ^[6] as well as the novels of Jacqueline Susann ^{[7] [8]} and Harold Robbins, ^[9] it is specifically associated with the novels of Judith Krantz, Jackie Collins, Shirley Conran and Jilly Cooper, known for their glamorous, financially independent female protagonists and salacious storylines. ^[10] In particular, Krantz’s novel Scruples , which describes the glamorous and affluent world of high fashion in Beverly Hills, California, helped define the bonkbuster. ^[11] In 2023 former British prime minister Rishi Sunak revealed that some of his favourite books were bonkbusters in the Rutshire Chronicles series by Cooper. ^{[12] [13]}

References

1. The Daily Telegraph, 18 February 2002 ^{[ dead link ]} Accessed 11 November 2007.
2. Sydney Morning Herald, 19 June 2002 Accessed 11 November 2007.
3. "Bonk word that bust convention". The Guardian. 18 June 2002.
4. Moses, Claire (17 October 2024). "Jilly Cooper on Adapting Her Naughty Romance, 'Rivals,' for Disney+". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
5. Flood, Alison (10 September 2016). "Jilly Cooper: 'People were always coming up to us at parties and asking us to bed'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 7 April 2025.
6. "Observer review: Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor". The Guardian. 27 July 2002.
7. "Sex in the suburbs: a history of the bonkbuster in six books". The Guardian. 28 July 2012.
8. Haines, Chris (1 October 1997). "Media Circus". Salon.
9. Cummins, Anthony (21 May 2016). "Harold Robbins's cocaine-fuelled bonkbusters sold 750 million copies—and they're far better than Fifty Shades". The Daily Telegraph.
10. "How the bonkbuster novel came to define a generation". The Independent. 17 August 2019.
11. "Judith Krantz, Novelist Who Wrote Tales of Sex and Shopping, Dies at 91". Bloomberg. 23 June 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019– via www.bloomberg.com.
12. "Britain's Rishi Sunak loves reading racy books about horses". Politico. 25 May 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2026.
13. "UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak loves a horsey 'bonkbuster.'". Literary Hub. 25 May 2023. Retrieved 6 June 2025.