The Woman of Substance
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A fascinating look at the remarkable life of Barbara Taylor Bradford, bestselling author of the unforgettable A Woman of Substance 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.
Barbara Taylor Bradford's rise to fame and fortune was a difficult one. But from an early age her mother marked her out for glory – at any cost. The drive and ambition instilled in Barbara were to reap huge rewards. From humble beginnings in Yorkshire she took London's Fleet Street by storm. And then, with the creation of Emma Harte, the unforgettable heroine of her first novel A Woman of Substance, she inspired women the world over – and became one of the world's bestselling authors.
This is the first time that Barbara Taylor Bradford has been involved in a memoir of any kind and this unique collaboration has produced an extraordinary story. For Emma Harte's rise from Edwardian kitchen maid, single and pregnant, to one of the richest women in the world uncannily mirrors Barbara's own family history – something which was as much of a shock to Barbara as it will be to her millions of fans…
Don’t miss this incredible story of suffering, loss and triumph over adversity, a must-read for any A Woman of Substance fan.
Reviews
‘Enthralling…a story no less gripping than any of her blockbusters' You
About the author
Piers Dudgeon is a writer, ediitor and photographer. He worked for ten years as a publisher in London before starting his own company and developing books with authors as diverse as John Fowles, Ted Hughes, Daphne du Maurier, Catherine Cookson, Peter Ackroyd and Susan Hill. In 1993, he moved from London to a village on the North Yorkshire moors. He has written ten works of non-fiction, including the no. 1 bestselling biography of Catherine Cookson, The Girl from Leam Lane, as well as feature articles for the Observer, the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dudgeon, a British biographer with books on Catherine Cookson and Josephine Cox, salutes Bradford's intrigue-laden books with both his title (a play on her bestselling Cinderella story) and subtitle. Developed with Bradford's cooperation and cordial dinner invitations, this biography plunges into the author's salad days, carefully sorting out the circumstances that gave rise to her 20 bestsellers. With both narrow and wide-angle lenses, Dudgeon explores the familial hardships, career triumphs and cultural forces that informed and inspired her romance novels, which turn on colorful heroines with flinty pride and family secrets. Born in 1933, Bradford rose from working-class dreamer to wealthy celebrity, and her novels tap into the era's aspirational impulses. She became a cub reporter for the British tabloids at age 15, then established a career in magazine reporting before publishing A Woman of Substance in 1976, the first of many wildly popular reads. Reverent and often rhapsodic, Dudgeon probes Bradford's plots and characters, dissecting passages with the intensity of a literary critic as he scans for threads that connect art and life. An enjoyable opening scene at Bradford's Sutton Place digs conjures a milieu as mesmerizing as the subject's own fictional settings.
