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She published her first novel, A Woman Of Substance, in 1979 which went on to become one of the best-selling novels in history.<\/p>\n
Now, 44 years later, she\u2019s publishing her 40th, The Wonder Of It All, the cumulative sales of her books have topped 90 million and she celebrated her 90th birthday in May. Whichever way you slice it, Barbara Taylor Bradford is a literary phenomenon.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne minute,\u201d she says, talking from her Manhattan apartment, \u201cI was writing A Woman Of Substance and now I have to pinch myself as I look at the first few pages of each new book and see this long list of titles. I\u2019ve already started plotting my next novel and can\u2019t wait to finish my research.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, what motivates her? \u201cI often remind myself of something Noel Coward once said: \u2018Work is more fun than fun!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The latest book completes the Falconer trilogy. James has risen from barrow boy to become a wealthy businessman. But there have been setbacks along the way.<\/p>\n
Can he recapture his early happiness? \u201cI\u2019m not going to tell you,\u201d says Barbara, \u201cbecause I don\u2019t want to spoil the story.\u201d Forensic research and iron discipline are two ingredients, she thinks, for completing a compelling work of fiction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to be at my desk by 9.30 each morning and pick up where I left off the day before. \u201cI\u2019ve never written on a computer, always on a typewriter, but I wrote The Wonder Of It All by hand as I began to find it hard to focus on the paper in the typewriter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her long and successful career was matched by a happy marriage to movie executive Bob Bradford. When he died in 2019, he and Barbara \u2013 they met on a blind date \u2013 had been together for 58 years. She felt his loss keenly. \u201cI\u2019m lonely without him. It\u2019s like half of me has been chopped off. He had a great personality and very dry humour. I used to say to him, \u2018You make me laugh every day\u2019.<\/p>\n
He was my best friend. \u201cI\u2019m trying to live as normally as I can without him. I love going out to dinner with friends and I\u2019m a member of various private members\u2019 clubs.\u201d Although she has dual British\/American citizenship, she refers to herself as an Englishwomen living in New York.<\/p>\n
So, she wouldn\u2019t ever consider moving back to the UK on a permanent basis? She looks aghast. \u201cOf course not. I can\u2019t. Bob is here, buried in Westchester. And I bought the empty plot next to him so that one day we\u2019ll be lying side by side together again.\u201d On recently celebrating her milestone birthday, she shrugs, \u201cAge is just a number. I follow Winston Churchill\u2019s dictum: KBO (keep b*ggering on)!\u201d<\/p>\n
Churchill is one of her all-time heroes matched only by Queen Elizabeth II. \u201cI was so upset when she died.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was a stateswoman of substance; truly loved and held with such affection across the whole world because she stood for all that is good and honourable.<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t believe there has ever been another woman in history so universally loved as her.\u201d Does she plan to write her autobiography?<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been thinking about that recently. I\u2019d call it An Unlikely Life because that\u2019s what it\u2019s been. One minute I\u2019m working in the busy newsroom at the Yorkshire Evening Post. Then, I\u2019m in the White House having dinner with the President.\u201d<\/p>\n
Presumably retirement is out of the question? A hollow laugh. \u201cNo, like Napoleon, I shall die with my boots on,\u201d says the indefatigable Barbara Taylor Bradford.<\/p>\n
\uf098 The Wonder Of It All by Barbara Taylor Bradford (HarperCollins, \u00a320) is available to order from expressbookshop.com or call Express Bookshop on 020 3176 3832. Free UK P&P on online orders over \u00a325<\/p>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[ad_1] She published her first novel, A Woman Of Substance, in 1979 which went on to become one of the best-selling novels in history. Now, 44 years later, she\u2019s publishing her 40th, The Wonder Of It All, the cumulative sales of her books have topped 90 million and she celebrated her 90th birthday in May. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1023],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}