Best-selling author Barbara Taylor Bradford dies, aged 91

40 novels, 91 million copies sold: Prolific author Barbara Taylor Bradford dies, aged 91

Barbara Taylor Bradford

British-American author Barbara Taylor Bradford has died, aged 91. The prolific writer, who published 40 novels in her career spanning over four decades passed away at her home in New York City on Sunday after a short illness, her publisher HarperCollins confirmed. 

As one of the world’s best-selling novelists, Taylor Bradford’s books sold more than 91 million copies, and were published in over 40 languages in 90 countries. Her debut, A Woman of Substance, which she published aged 46 in 1979 has since sold more than 30 million copies globally. 

Taylor Bradford’s publisher and editor at HarperCollins, Lynne Drew, described working with the novelist as “a huge privilege but also a huge amount of fun.”

“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 said.

“She was an inspiration for millions of readers and countless writers. I’m so proud to have been her publisher for over 20 years – working with her has been one of the great thrills of my career, and I and everyone at HarperCollins will miss her greatly.”

In an interview in 2006 with the Observer, Taylor Bradford revealed that she started writing in her late 30s, because she thought: “…what if I get to 55, and I’ve never written a novel? I’m going to hate myself. I’m going to be one of those bitter, unfulfilled writers.”

She began writing suspense novels, abandoning four in total before she wrote the first book in the Emma Harte saga, A Woman of Substance. She went on to publish seven sequels, including Hold the Dream, To Be The Best, Emma’s Secret, and most recently, the long-awaited prequel, A Man of Honour, which was published in 2021.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the publication of her first book, Taylor Bradford reflected on her time writing it, saying, “I simply wanted to tell a story about a young girl who becomes a young woman and decides she wants to make a better life for herself and her child.”

“I just wanted to tell a good story about this woman, about her adventures, about the man she marries,” she said in 2009. “I was telling a woman’s life story. I had no idea that Emma would become the great role model of the 20th century for women all over the world.” 

In her foreword to the 40th anniversary edition of A Woman of Substance, British author Fern Britton described Taylor Bradford’s heroine as a “force of nature… who has inspired women for the past four decades – inspired them to be courageous, break rules and follow their dreams”.

Throughout her writing career, Taylor Bradford developed stories that often featured resilient young women who overcome adversities to find success. She is frequently quoted as having said: “I write about mostly ordinary women who go on to achieve the extraordinary.”

Ten of her books were adapted for television films and mini-series, starring actors including Deborah Kerr, Elizabeth Hurley, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Liam Neeson. 

Taylor Bradford was born in Leeds in 1933, to a mother who worked as a nurse, and a father who worked as an industrial engineer. She left school at 15 to become a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post. She was promoted to reporter years later, becoming the paper’s first women’s editor. At twenty, she moved to London, writing for Woman’s Own and the London Evening News

In a 1991 Current Biography profile, Taylor Bradford was quoted as saying, “I now realise that as I laboured I was in effect honing my craft, teaching myself how to write a novel.”

“I truly believe that learning the craft of fiction writing is vital and that you can’t do that at classes. You can perhaps learn techniques. But no one can teach you to write a novel. You have to teach yourself.”

A self-described workaholic, she continued to write well into her eighties. Her final novel, The Wonder Of It All, was published in November 2023. The global celebrity novelist is believed to have made up to US$300 million in book sales throughout her lifetime. 

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