Barbara Taylor Bradford

Barbara Taylor was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England[3] to Freda and Winston Taylor.[4] Before her birth, her parents had had a son, Vivian, who died of meningitis. She would later describe her mother as having "put all her frustrated love into me."[5] Winston Taylor was an engineer who had lost a leg serving in the First World War.[4]

She would later fictionalise her parent's marriage in her 1986 novel, An Act of Will.[4] She and fellow Yorkshire writer Alan Bennett attended the same nursery school in the Leeds suburb of Upper Armley.[4] As a child during the Second World War Taylor Bradford held a jumble sale at her school, and donated the £2 proceeds to the 'Aid to Russia' fund. She later received a handwritten thank-you letter from Clementine Churchill, the wife of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.[6]

Barbara Taylor Bradford's biographer, Piers Dudgeon, uncovered evidence that her mother, Freda, was the illegitimate daughter of Frederick Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon, a local Yorkshire aristocrat.[4] Freda's mother had been a servant of the Marquess. Dudgeon informed his biographee that her grandmother had had three children by the Marquess, and after some hesitation, she allowed Dudgeon to publish the book.[4]

Although initially angry at Dudgeon's discovery, she later said that "I came round. There's no stigma now."[4] Taylor Bradford's grandmother would later spend time in a workhouse.[4] She would later explore the workhouses of her ancestors in the ITV television series, Secrets of the Workhouse which broadcast in 2013.[7]

Barbara Taylor met her husband, American film producer Robert Bradford, on a blind date in 1961 after being introduced by the English screenwriter Jack Davies.[4][8] They married on Christmas Eve in 1963, and the couple moved permanently to the United States. She has been an American citizen since 1992.[9] Barbara and Robert Bradford live in Manhattan in New York City.[4] The couple have no children.[5]

Young Barbara Taylor decided to be a writer at the age of ten after she sent a story to a magazine.[4] She was paid seven 7s 6d for the story, with which she bought handkerchiefs and a green vase for her parents.[4] Taylor Bradford left school at 15, and after a spell in the typing pool of the Yorkshire Evening Post, she became a reporter for the newspaper.[4] As a reporter at the Post, Taylor Bradford sat alongside Keith Waterhouse.[4] She moved to London at age 20 and would become fashion editor of Woman's Own magazine, and would later work as a columnist on the London Evening News. She later had a column on interior decoration that was syndicated to 183 newspapers.[4] Her first efforts at fiction writing were with four suspense novels, which she later abandoned.[4] She would subsequently describe "interviewing herself", saying that "I was in my late thirties. I 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."[4]

In December 2013, Bradford auctioned forty pieces of jewellery that had been given to her by her husband at Bonhams in London.[10] Taylor Bradford donated the money raised from the auction of her jewellery to two relatives in England.

Bradford has been awarded honorary doctorate from Leeds University, the University of Bradford, Mount St. Mary's College, Sienna College and Post University in Connecticut.[4][9] Taylor Bradford was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in the Queen's 2007 Birthday Honours list for her contributions to literature. Her original manuscripts are archived at Special Collections in the Brotherton Library at Leeds University beside those of the Brontë sisters.[11][9] In 2017, Bradford was recognised as of 90 "Great Britons" to commemorate The Queen's 90th birthday.

In her youth, she read Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Thomas Hardy, and Colette.[12] She considers Irish historian and author Cornelius Ryan as a literary mentor. Ryan encouraged her writing and was the first person (other than her mother) to whom she had confided her literary ambitions.[13] Her favourite contemporary authors are P. D. James, Bernard Cornwell and Ruth Rendell.[6]

Her wealth has been estimated at between £166–174 million.[14] Her wealth has fed two persistent rumours, that she owns 2,000 pairs of shoes,[4][15] and that the lake in her former house in Connecticut was heated for the benefit of her swans.[14] Taylor Bradford addressed the rumours in a 2011 interview, tracing the shoes rumour to a joke, and the heated lake to the fact that the previous owners of the house had installed it on part of the lake to provide an ice-free area for a pair of swans in winter.[16]

She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1990 when she was surprised by Michael Aspel at Heathrow Airport.[17]

Five of her television adaptations were re-released on DVD in the UK in September 2008 by Acorn Media UK. These are A Woman of Substance; Hold The Dream; To Be The Best; Act of Will and Voice of the Heart. A Woman of Substance, Hold The Dream and To Be The Best were reissued on DVD by Acorn Media in the US in May 2012. Act of Will and Voice of the Heart remain available on DVD in the US through Infinity Video.

• Official website
• Barbara Taylor Bradford's blog
• Works by Barbara Taylor Bradford at Open Library
• Barbara Taylor Bradford at the Internet Book List
• Works by or about Barbara Taylor Bradford in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Archival material at Leeds University Library
• Barbara Taylor Bradford's appearance on This Is Your Life