The Woman of Substance: The Life and Work of Barbara Taylor Bradford

Description

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. Yet her rise to fame and fortune was not an easy one. She came from humble beginnings in Yorkshire, the only daughter of a labourer and a domestic servant, and success was something that had to be grafted for. This drive, ambition and desire to triumph instilled in her was to reap huge dividends when she took first the Yorkshire Post and then Fleet Street by storm. But her biggest achievement was undeniably A Woman of Substance. The story of Emma Harte's life is a testament to Barbara's imagination but here, for the first time, Piers Dudgeon unearths amazing parallels in the lives of Barbara's fictional characters and her real-life family. More remarkable still is that he has discovered astonishing family secrets which Barbara herself was previously completely unaware of yet which still managed to make their way into her novels. In this incredible story, fact and fiction exist side by side and art unwittingly imitates life. The Woman of Substance is a unique collaboration, the first time that Barbara Taylor Bradford has participated in a memoir of any kind, and one that has turned out to be as much of a shock to her as it will certainly be to her many fans.

Piers Dudgeon is the author of more than thirty works of non-fiction. He worked for ten years as an editor in London before starting his own company, Pilot Productions, publishing books with a diverse range of authors. He has written the biographies of Catherine Cookson, the du Maurier family, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Maeve Binchy, Jo Cox, the composer Sir John Tavener, the thinker Edward de Bono, and the novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie.

'Enthralling!a story no less gripping than any of her blockbusters.' You