The Woman of Substance: The Life and Work of Barbara Taylor Bradford
For the first time ever, a fascinating look at the remarkable life of Barbara Taylor Bradford. From the cobbled streets of Yorkshire to the sweeping avenues of Manhattan, Barbara's own story is as dramatic a tale as any one of her bestsellers.Barbara Taylor Bradford's rise to fame and fortune was a difficult one. But from an early age her mother marked her out for glory – at any cost. The drive and ambition instilled in Barbara were to reap huge rewards. From humble beginnings in Yorkshire she took London's Fleet Street by storm. And then, with the creation of Emma Harte, the unforgettable heroine of her first novel A Woman of Substance, she inspired women the world over – and became one of the world's bestselling authors.This is the first time that Barbara Taylor Bradford has been involved in a memoir of any kind and this unique collaboration has produced an extraordinary story. For Emma Harte's rise from Edwardian kitchen maid, single and pregnant, to one of the richest women in the world uncannily mirrors Barbara's own family history – something which was as much of a shock to Barbara as it will be to her millions of fans…An incredible story of suffering, loss and triumph over adversity, not to be missed.
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The Woman of Substance
THE SECRET LIFE THAT INSPIRED
THE RENOWNED STORYTELLER
Barbara Taylor Bradford was born and raised in England. She started her writing career on the Yorkshire Evening Post and later worked as a journalist in London. Her first novel, A Woman of Substance, became an enduring bestseller and was followed by twenty-five others, including the bestselling Harte series. Barbara’s books have sold more than eighty-one million copies worldwide in more than ninety countries and forty languages, and ten mini-series and television movies have been made of her books. In October of 2007, Barbara was appointed an OBE by the Queen for her services to literature. She lives in New York City with her husband, television producer Robert Bradford.
Piers Dudgeon is the author of many works of nonfiction. He worked for ten years as an editor in London, before starting his own publishing company and producing books with authors as diverse as John Fowles, Catherine Cookson, Peter Ackroyd, Daphne du Maurier, Shirley Conran, Ted Hughes and Susan Hill. In 1993, he left London for the North York Moors, where he has written biographies of Sir John Tavener, Edward de Bono, Catherine Cookson, Josephine Cox, J M Barrie and Daphne du Maurier. He is currently working on a series of oral histories of post-industrial Britain and a book about the poet Ted Hughes’s childhood.
Section 1
1. Barbara’s mother, Freda Walker, a nurse at Ripon Fever Hospital in 1922. (Bradford Photo Archive)
3. Winston Taylor, Barbara’s father as a boy of sixteen in the Royal Navy. (Bradford Photo Archive)
5. Map of Armley, dated 1933, the year Barbara was born.
7. Barbara at two years, walking in Gott’s Park, Armley. (Bradford Photo Archive)
8. Tower Lane, Armley, site of Barbara’s first home.
9. No. 38 Tower Lane as it is today.
11. Armley Christ Church School, which Barbara attended with playwright Alan Bennett.
13. Barbara aged three. (Bradford Photo Archive)
14. Christ Church Armley, where Barbara was baptised and received her first Communion.
15. Barbara as a fairy in a Sunday School pantomime. (Bradford Photo Archive)
16. Barbara with bucket and spade, aged five on holiday at Bridlington. (Bradford Photo Archive)
17 and 18. Leeds Market, where Marks & Spencer began and the food halls in Emma Harte’s flag-ship store in A Woman of Substance were inspired. (Yorkshire Post and Leeds Library)
19. Top Withens, the setting for Wuthering Heights. (Yorkshire Tourist Board)
Section 2
21. 1909 Map of Ripon, when Barbara’s mother, Freda, was five.
22. Ripon Minster. (Ripon Library)
23. Ripon Market Place as Freda and her mother, Edith, knew it. (Ripon Library)
24. The Wakeman Hornblower, who still announces the watch each night at 9 p.m. (Ripon Library)
25. Water Skellgate in 1904, the year that EdithWalker gave birth there to Freda. (Ripon Library)
26. The stepping stones on the Skell where Freda fell. (Ripon Library)
27. One of Ripon’s ancient courts, like the one where Freda was born.
28. Freda dressed in her best at fourteen. (Bradford Photo Archive)
29. Studley Royal Hall, home of the Marquesses of Ripon. (Ripon Library)
30. Fountains Hall, on which Pennistone Royal in the Emma Harte novels is based. (Ripon Library)
31. Edith Walker, Barbara’s maternal grandmother. (Bradford Photo Archive)
32. Frederick Oliver Robinson of Studley Royal, Second Marquess of Ripon. (Ripon Library)
33. Ripon Union Workhouse, known as the Grubber in Edith’s day.
Section 3
34 and 35. The offices of The Yorkshire Evening Post, where Barbara worked from fifteen. (Yorkshire Post)
36. Barbara as YEP Woman’s Page Assistant at seventeen. (Bradford Photo Archive)
37. Barbara at nineteen, as Woman’s Page Editor. (Bradford Photo Archive)
39. Barbara in 1953, aged twenty, when she left Leedsfor London to work as a Fashion Editor on
