She never, ever forgot she was just a girl from Yorkshire who worked hard & made good

After rejecting Peter O'Toole at her desk because her mother warned her not to flirt at work, Barbara Taylor Bradford transformed from a local newspaper reporter into a global literary powerhouse.

- CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN

The author, whose A Woman of Substance earned her the nickname "the grande dame of blockbusters", died aged 91 at her home in New York on Sunday.

Confirming her passing, Lynne Drew, her publisher and editor at HarperCollins, said working with the writer was a huge privilege and a huge amount of fun.

She added: "Perennially curious, interested in everyone and extraordinarily driven, she loved writing. and the conversations we had about her characters were unfailingly the best hours of my week.

"She was an inspiration for millions of readers and countless writers. I'm so proud to have been her publisher for over 20 years.

"I and everyone at HarperCollins will miss her greatly."

Jenny Seagrove, who played the lead when A Woman of Substance was adapted for TV, said: "A wonderful writer, human being and friend has gone. I adored her.

"She never, ever forgot that she was just a girl from Yorkshire that worked hard and made good."

During her career, Barbara wrote 32 novels over four decades, selling over 90 million copies worldwide.

Known for her meticulously crafted stories about ambitious and resilient women navigating a man's world, she amassed a devoted readership and earned an estimated fortune of £160million.

The stories often featured heroines who, like Barbara, worked up from humble beginnings.

Her own favourite was The Women In His Life, inspired by her late husband Robert Bradford's experiences escaping the Nazis.

The couple were married for 56 years until he died in 2019.

Born Barbara Taylor in Armley, Leeds, in 1933, she was an only child from a workingclass background who quickly discovered a love for reading - and for writing.

By age 10, she had a story published in a local magazine, sparking an ambition that led her to the Yorkshire Evening News.