At Mills & Boon, we are all about romance! However, some of the most important and memorable relationships are those between female friends. To celebrate sisterhood, we invited our authors to share their favourite female friendships from pop culture, or reveal some personal anecdotes about friendship.
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My all-time favourite fictional friendship is that between Anne Shirley and Diana Barry in Anne of Green Gables. Anne dreams of meeting ‘a really kindred spirit to whom I can confide my innermost soul’ – and who wouldn’t want to be ‘bosom friends’ with Anne? She’s genuine, generous, open and she always believes the best of people. I’m lucky to have a few friends who fit that description and I hope I do too (at least most of the time!) but since real life isn’t always so straightforward, I also really enjoy Jane Fallon’s more complicated take on female friendships – both the best and the worst of them!
(Jenni Fletcher, Historical author)
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I loved Fleabag, the series follows a young woman and her dysfunctional relationships. A lot is said about the love story between Fleabag and the Hot Priest…and yes, it is fabulous. But I think the show is more about the love and friendship between Fleabag and her sister Claire.
In my Shieldmaiden Sisters series, I try to explore the love between three sisters, who are very different from each other, but who, when the chips are down, will do anything for one another. Even if it means going to war, or speaking some hard truths!
I think that’s what true friendship is, knowing each other’s flaws and strengths, but loving and supporting each other regardless. I, personally, do not have any sisters, but I have friends I have known since childhood, university, and from a mother and baby group. I rely on and love each of them dearly. They are my sisters, and I am grateful to have met every single one of them.
(Lucy Morris, Historical author)
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Female friendships rock! They are fierce, funny, and wonderful, a place where you can be your best, and worst, self. I have a few close friends, but my best friend is the mum of my daughter’s lifelong friend, a result (or self-preservation) of keeping up with our strong willed, sociable daughters! They are in their twenties now, and we’re all amazingly close.
My favourite fictional friendship is Hillary and CeCe from the movie Beaches, released in the late ’80’s. There are so many lessons about female friendship in this movie, including how to forgive, that soul mates don’t have to be your romantic partners, how to be silly together and how to be a fierce advocate for your friendship despite not always approving of the other’s choices.
(Joss Wood, Modern and Desire author)
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Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz (I Love Lucy) are my go-to reminders of an enriching friendship, and the kind of relationship I value in my life. I appreciate that the two women had their differences in reality, but the difficulties faded as their true friendship grew. Actresses Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance supported each other, and each made the other better. A friendship on many levels with heartstrings connected.
(Liz Tyner, Historical author)
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When I think of friendship my two college friends, Lynn and Kathy come to mind. It has been almost 50 years since we shared those days of youth while off at school. We have grown into adulthood together. I still see them regularly despite us living in different states. When we are together it is as if nothing has changed between us. We start where we last left off. To this day I still call them in the times of happiness and sadness. They are always there for me. I’m lucky to have them in my life.
(Susan Carlisle, Medical author)
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I come from a large family, so I have six sisters. If I have a problem, there isn’t a time of day or night when I can’t call one of them. I have a sister who helps me pick out clothes and a sister who bakes Christmas cookies “with” me. (She does most of the heavy lifting.) When we recently remodeled most of our house, my sisters shared my joy. My sisters and I have also shared war stories about child rearing. LOL Female friendships give us an anchor when life goes sideways. They give us hope when all feels lost. They are a safe harbor for being seen and understood. That’s the real power of female friendships.
(Susan Meier, True Love author)
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“If you can sit in silence with a person for half an hour and yet be entirely comfortable, you and that person can be friends. If you cannot, friends you’ll never be and you need not waste time in trying.”—The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery. I adore Valancy Stirling with all of my heart! I love her friendship with Cissy Gay and how they both become the best versions of themselves.
(Samantha Hastings, Historical author)
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Best female friendship ever in fiction has to be Thelma and Louise. Those women will literally die for each other, they have each other’s back, they laugh, cry and live life to the full – and Louise has the class to get out of Thelma’s way when she spends a wild night with a young Brad Pitt! Enough said. I have my own Thelma – who I have been going on road trips to the US with ever since our 20s. We also go campervanning in Snowdonia too! Lol. And although we always leave out the driving off a cliff bit, we’d totally die for each other too.
(Heidi Rice, Modern author)
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The first time I saw ‘Beaches’ I must have been no older than ten, but that was the first time a movie about two women and their friendship made me bawl my eyes out! “You are the wind beneath my wings,” Bette Midler, “did you ever know that you’re my hero?”
Hillary (Barbara Hershey) and CeCe (Bette Midler) could not have been more different, but that didn’t stop them being friends, and that’s a lesson I’ve carried with me in my own life. Your tribe should teach you new things, not be mirror images of yourself and your own interests. Being in my 40s I have friends from all over the world now, some younger, some much older, and we all brighten each other’s lives in different ways. Hillary and CeCe were both quite lonely souls, but they always found strength in each other, and lifted each other up.
“That’s the glory of love!”
Although I don’t think I’ve ever had a massive brawl in a shopping centre, like Hillary and CeCe, I’ve certainly disagreed with a few friends over the years. The best friends of course, know your heart is always theirs, and will be willing to fight for that friendship, no matter what disagreements might come between you. ‘Beaches’ taught me that soul mates aren’t always romantic partners, and that you can always be someone’s hero, even from afar.
(Becky Wicks, Medical author)
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