Private Passions

Barbara Taylor Bradford’s life story is every bit as extraordinary as one of her novels. As she tells Michael Berkeley in a warm and frank interview, she was born in the back streets of Leeds in 1933, left school at 15 to work as a typist at the Yorkshire Evening Post, and at 18 was the first editor of the paper’s 'Woman’s Page'. By 20 she was an established Fleet Street journalist. And then came the novels - her first book, A Woman of Substance, was published in 1979 and has sold over 32 million copies: it is the story of Emma Harte, an impoverished maidservant who through sheer grit rises to become a phenomenally successful businesswoman. Barbara Taylor Bradford has gone on to write another 34 books, with sales approaching 100 million; many were turned into films and television series by her late husband, the producer Robert Bradford. Barbara takes Michael back to her childhood in Leeds, where her mother, Freda, introduced her to the composers she still loves today: Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Bizet and, especi