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Barbara Taylor Bradford has died at the age of 91 after a short illness.
The 91-year-old author died peace peacefully at her home in Manhatten on Sunday, November 24 following a short illness.
A spokesperson confirmed she’was surrounded by loved ones to the very end.
The author wrote 40 novels in her career, with her book A Woman of Substance turned into a popular TV series in the 1980s.
The series ran for one season in 1985 as a British-American three-part television drama serial, starring Liam Neeson, Deborah Kerr, Jenny Seagrove and Barry Bostwick.
The novelist was married to American film producer Robert Bradford. The couple first met in 1961 and married on Christmas Eve in 1963.
Robert died in 2019 after a major stroke, but the couple was happily married for 55 years before his death
Taylor Bradford was born in Leeds in May 1933 and was the only child of Winston and Freda Taylor.
She began her career as a typist for theYorkshire Evening Post, before working her way up to becoming a reporter and the paper’s first female editor.
At the age of 20, she moved to London and worked for Woman’s Own and the London Evening News.
The novelist became an overnight success in 1979 when A Woman Of Substance was published.
The author was made an OBE in 2007 for services to literature and she used her wealth (which was estimated to be between $60 – $166 million) to aid a variety of charities.
The author admitted that she does heat the lake at her home for her pets, but there’s a ‘good reason’ for it.
Taylor Bradford told The Guardian in 2021: ‘The silliest rumour about me is that I heated the lake at a former home in Connecticut to keep the swans warm. I didn’t. The previous owners did it to stop the swans freezing to death in winter. A good reason.’
Taylor Bradford’s most recent novel, The Wonder of It All, was published just last year.
Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of publisher HarperCollins, commented on her passing and her impact in the literature industry.
‘Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first book, the international bestseller A Woman Of Substance, changed the lives of so many who read it – and still does to this day.
‘She was a natural storyteller, deeply proud of her Yorkshire roots – she would regale us of her time working on the Yorkshire Evening Post with fellow reporter Keith Waterhouse and trainee photographer Peter O’Toole, the dawn of the Soho cafe society, and the many happy years shared with the love of her life, her husband, Bob.
‘For 45 years, she was a huge part of our company and a great, great friend – we will miss her so much – but there is some solace in the knowledge that she is now, once again, alongside her beloved Bob. A life well-lived…’
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