Best-selling author Barbara Taylor Bradford dies aged 91
She wrote a total of 40 novels during her career
Last updated 25th Nov 2024
Novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, who wrote 40 novels including A Woman Of Substance, has died at the age of 91.
The author died peacefully at her home on Sunday November 24 following a short illness, “and was surrounded by loved ones to the very end”, a spokeswoman said.
She was often labelled “the grand dame of blockbusters”, with her books selling more than 91 million copies to date, and having been published in more than 40 languages and in 90 countries.
She was born in Leeds in May 1933, the only child of Winston and Freda Taylor.
She began work as a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post before she was promoted to reporter and then went on to become the paper’s first woman’s editor.
At the age of 20 she moved to London and worked in Fleet Street for Woman’s Own and the London Evening News.
She met her husband, American film producer Robert Bradford, in 1961 and they fell in love at first sight, marrying in London on Christmas Eve in 1963.
The following year she moved to New York to live with him.
The couple were married for 55 years until he died from a major stroke in 2019.
An overnight success
Taylor Bradford had started and ditched several novels while pursuing her journalistic career – until she hit the big time when A Woman Of Substance was published in 1979, making her an overnight success.
The story followed Emma Harte’s journey from life as a servant in rural Yorkshire to heading a business empire, despite numerous personal tragedies along the way.
It became a huge bestseller and was followed by many other successful books.
A TV adaptation of A Woman Of Substance followed in 1985, and starred Liam Neeson with Jenny Seagrove playing Emma Harte. It aired on Channel 4 and went on to garner two Emmy nominations.
The author later published A Man Of Honour, the prequel to A Woman Of Substance, which starts five years before the original and follows the fortunes of Blackie O’Neill, who leaves County Kerry for Leeds to build a better life, and meets kitchen maid Emma Harte.
Taylor Bradford was made an OBE in 2007 for services to literature.
Following a private funeral in New York, the author will be buried alongside her late husband at the city’s Westchester Hills Cemetery.
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Barbara Taylor Bradford
Novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, who wrote 40 novels including A Woman Of Substance, sadly died at the age of 91 in November. The author died peacefully at her home following a short illness.