Farewell to Grande Dame of blockbusters...91 million books sold and counting

BESTSELLING novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, who took the world by storm when she wrote A Woman of Substance, has died aged 91.

- Kerri-Ann Roper

The author passed away peacefully at her home on Sunday after a short illness, and was "surrounded by loved ones", a spokeswoman said.

She wrote 40 novels, with her most recent, The Wonder of It All, published just last year.

Barbara 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.

Born in Leeds in May 1933, she was 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 stroke in 2019.

Barbara 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.