Preminger's film adaptation, given a moral ending on the insistence of Darryl F Zanuck, was thin stuff, however. The publication of Forever Amber in England in 1945 offered, as the critic Elaine Showalter has suggested, a vivid alternative to wartime austerity and Greer Garson's Mrs Miniver. The novels of Hervey Allen, Margaret Mitchell and Kenneth Roberts had fed the taste for historical romance that blossomed in the depression, and it was Mitchell and Winsor who turned this celebration of the American past into the modern phenomenon of the summer bestseller, romantic novels and bodice-rippers largely marketed to female readers. Books about the war, such as John Hersey's A Bell For Adano and Ernie Pyle's Brave Men, did not stand a chance against its narrative verve, colour and refreshing absence of earnestness. It was the bestselling US novel in the 1940s. Altogether, Forever Amber sold more than 3m copies and was translated into 16 languages. It was, and 100,000 copies were snapped up in the first week.

Of course, the bans were coded messages to the American reading public, which concluded that the book sounded like fun. In those days, you know, you could solve everything with an ellipse.' 'I wrote only two sexy passages,' she remarked, 'and my publishers took both of them out. Winsor denied that her book was particularly daring, and said that she had no interest in 'anatomical scenes'. Other states joined in the condemnation, and the critics, joyless and hostile, were led by Orville Prescott, who denounced the novel as 'a crude and superficial glorification of a courtesan'.

Combing the text, the Massachusetts attorney-general found 70 references to sexual intercourse, 39 illegitimate pregnancies, seven abortions, 10 scenes in which women undressed in front of men who were not their husbands, and nearly 50 'miscellaneous objectionable passages' - and announced that the book would be banned (an action overturned on appeal). In a pre-emptive move to scare Hollywood away from such a sexy novel, the book was denounced by the powerful Hays Office, which offered guidance on morals to the studio bosses. An unprecedented budget of $20,000 was spent on a nationwide promotion campaign. Publicity was strongly led by seductive photographs of the author - a 24 year-old 'raven-haired beauty' - and a rumour reached the gossip columns that she was being considered to star in the big-budget movie.

Winsor kathleen