Bradford, Barbara Taylor

(British, 1933– )

Barbara Taylor Bradford was born in Leeds

and worked as a journalist before writing her first novel, A Woman of Substance (1979). It became an international best-seller and spawned a number of sequels and imitators. The novel tells the story of Emma Harte, servant girl at Fairley Hall in Edwardian Yorkshire, who, motivated by revenge, raises herself to multi-millionairess with a world-wide empire including oil companies, newspapers, and department stores. On her way up she contends with seduction, attempted rape, and two world wars, and works her way through four men. Detailed descriptions of setting only partly compensate for lack of psychological realism. The story of Emma Harte's empire continues in Hold the Dream (1985) and To Be the Best (1988).

Rosie Thomas. See GLAMOUR  SA