Million-Selling Novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford Dies Aged 91

Author Barbara Taylor Bradford, widely known for best-selling novels including a Woman of Substance, has died at the age of 91. She died Sunday at her home in New York City, as confirmed by a spokesperson.

The novelist died peacefully at her home on Sunday after a short illness, “surrounded by loved ones to the very end.” Widely regarded as ‘the Grande dame of blockbusters.” Taylor Bradfor published her 40^th novel in 2023, the third in her Victorian family saga House of Falconer series.

Cumulative sales of her books across her lifetime reached more than 91m copies, and were published in more than 40 languages and in 90 countries. Starting with “A Woman of Substance,” published in 1979, Bradford averaged nearly a book a year as one of the world’s most popular and wealthiest writers, her net work estimated at more than $2000 million and her fame so high that here image appeared on a postage stamp in 1999.

With titles such as ‘Break the Rules” and “Act of Will,” she specialized in stories of women fighting for love and power in a man’s world. Her favorite among her books was “The Women in  His Life,” inspired by her husband’s escape from the Nazis.

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The renowned novelist was married to German-born film producer Rober Bradford for 56 years until his demise in 2019 following a stroke. Barbara Taylor Bradford and her husband did not have children, which she said was never a great source of sadness to her.

Lynne Drew, Barbara’s long-term publisher and editor at HarperCollins, said working with the novelist “was 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 the characters were unfailingly the best hours of my week.”

Born in Leeds, in 1933, Barbara Taylor Bradford attended nursery alongside acclaimed playwright, Alan Bennett. The bestselling author started writing aged seven and was first published aged 10, when her mother sold a story to a children’s magazine.

Ten of her books were adapted into TV films or dramas by here husband. “A Woman of Substance” won two Emmy awards nominations and broker records when it premiered on Channel 4 in 1985, attracting 13.8 million viewers.

In 2017, Queen Elizabeth II awarded her an OBE (The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire).