Bonkbuster
Subgenre of romance novels
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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called "the queen of the bonkbuster",[4] suggested that the term ought to be updated to "shagbusters" as "bonk" felt out-of-date.[5]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]
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