Best-selling A Woman of Substance author Barbara Taylor Bradford dies aged 91

By StephenRigley

Best-selling author Barbara Taylor Bradford has died at the age of 91.

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The British-American novelist became famous for her debut 1979 novel A Woman of Substance which was turned into a 1980s tv drama starring Jenny Seagrove, Deborah Kerr and Liam Neeson.

Barbara died peacefully at her home on Sunday November 24 following a brief illness.Bradford wrote a total of 40 novels during her lifetime.

Bradford was a prolific writer who completing a total of 40 novels during her lifetime.

All of her books, often centred on the lives of the glamorous and wealthy, went on to become worldwide bestsellers. A Woman of Substance sold over 30million copies.

Born in Leeds, in 1933, she attended nursery alongside the acclaimed playwright, Alan Bennett.

The bestselling author started writing aged seven and was first published aged 10, when her mother sold a story to a children’s magazine.

The writer has credited much of her success to her parents, who she said were “instrumental” in supporting her career.

Beginning her writing career as a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post aged 15, she became a reporter a year later, and by the age of 18 was the paper’s first woman’s editor.

Shortly after, she moved to London to become a columnist and editor on Fleet Street.

The author met Hollywood film and TV producer Robert Bradford in 1961, and the couple married in London on Christmas Eve in 1963.

They eventually moved to New York in 1964 and remained together for 55 years until Robert died in July 2019.

Ten of her books were adapted into TV films or dramas by her husband.

A Woman of Substance won two Emmy awards nominations and broke records when it premiered on Channel 4 in 1985, attracting 13.8 million viewers.

Bradford was awarded an OBE by the late Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature in 2007.