barbara taylor bradfordA British journalist who became a publishing sensation in the '40s with the saga “A Woman of Substance” and wrote more than a dozen other novels that sold millions of copies, has died. She was 91 years old.
Bradford died Sunday at his home in New York City, a spokesman said Monday. One obituary Was also posted on his website.
Beginning with “A Woman of Substance,” published in 1979, Bradford has become one of the world's most popular and wealthiest authors, writing an average of nearly one book per year, with her net worth estimated at more than $200 million and her The fame was so great that his image became visible. A postage stamp in 1999. In 2007, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the OBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire).
His books were published in 40 languages and sold more than 90 million copies worldwide.
Steve Parsons/AP
With titles like “Breaking the Rules” and “Act of Will”, she specialized in stories of women fighting for love and power in a man's world. Among her favorite books was “The Women in His Life”, which was inspired by her husband's escape from the Nazis.
Bradford was married for 56 years to German-born film producer Robert Bradford, who died in 2019.
A native of Leeds, West Yorkshire, she was an only child in a working-class family who loved books from an early age. As a girl, one of her stories was published in a local magazine. At the age of 16, he left school against his parents' wishes to become a reporter for the Yorkshire Evening Post. Over the next 30 years, she would serve as fashion editor of Woman's Own magazine, cover various beats for the London Evening News and, in the United States, write a syndicated column about interior design.
Although he wrote children's stories and advice books, novels were his dream. “A Woman of Substance” was a multi-generational chronicle of the hardships and triumphs of retail businesswoman Emma Harte, who would feature in many of Bradford's other novels. The book has sold over 30 million copies and was the basis for a 1984 television miniseries, starring Jenny Seagrove as young Emma and Deborah Kerr in her final role as Emma.
Bradford told London's Telegraph in 2009, “And if you want to meet the real Emma, meet me.” And I'm a very good businesswoman.”
Bradford and Emma Harte were connected by more than money: both had family secrets. As a young woman, Emma became pregnant by a man who refused to marry her and gave birth to a daughter. Years later, Bradford learned through his biographer that his own mother was born out of wedlock. It is now believed that Bradford's maternal grandfather was Frederick Oliver Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon and owner of Studley Royal Estate in Yorkshire, now a World Heritage Site.
Seagrove, who became a friend of Bradford after starring in the miniseries, described her as a “powerhouse of glamor and warmth” and a “force of nature” who stayed true to her roots.
Seagrove said, “Success never diminished her warmth and humor or her ability to get along with everyone, whether she was a janitor or a princess.” “She never forgot that she was a Yorkshire girl who worked hard and did good. Dear friend, RIP.”
Bradford had a strict writing routine: at work behind his IBM Lexmark typewriter until 6 a.m., a break around 1 p.m., then writing until 6 p.m., at the latest. According to Pierce Dudgeon's “The Woman of Substance”, a 2006 authorized biography, Bradford adapted to her midlife fortunes, living in a 5,300-square-foot apartment overlooking Manhattan's East River, collecting Impressionist art. And enjoyed a refill of pink champagne poured by his Moroccan. Butler. When the Bradfords put their apartment up for sale in 2010, the asking price was less than $19 million. (He sold it to Uma Thurman in 2013 for $10 million).
Over the years, she met many other celebrities. Bradford had befriended Sean Connery before he appeared in his first James Bond film and remembers him advising him, fortunately in vain, that he should lose his Scottish accent if he wanted to succeed.
Around the same time, he met a fellow journalist at the Yorkshire Evening Post. He was “skinny and acne-prone” and he continued trying to talk to her even after she declined a date to the movies.
He was Peter O'Toole.
“Years later, (Evening Post editor) Keith Waterhouse and I were at an event where producer Sam Spiegel introduced the star of his new film,” he told The Guardian in 2021. Dressed as Lawrence of Arabia, Keith said: 'Don't you wish you had gone to the pictures with him now?' “I never got over Peter's transformation.”
According to the obituary on her website, Bradford will be buried alongside her husband in Westchester Hills Cemetery, New York, following a private funeral at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue.