A blue plaque celebrating the life and works of bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford has been unveiled ahead of a TV adaptation of her 1979 novel A Woman of Substance.
Often hailed as the “grand dame of blockbusters”, the British-American novelist penned a total of 40 novels during her lifetime and all of her books – often centred on the lives of the wealthy and glamorous – went on to become worldwide bestsellers. She died aged 91 in 2024.
The plaque has been unveiled at the Armley Library in Leeds. Bradford was born and raised in the city and spent hours at the library as a young reader – famously holding two library cards to double the number of books she could take out.
She started writing at the age of seven and was first published at 10 years old, when her mother sold a story to a children’s magazine.
Having left school at the age of 15, Bradford became a typist at the Yorkshire Evening Post, where she climbed the ladder to be named the paper’s first Woman’s Editor at just 18 years old.
She moved to London aged 20 to become a columnist and editor on Fleet Street, where she met and married Hollywood film producer Robert Bradford.
The couple married in 1963 and moved to New York, where Barbara Bradford later turned her attention to fiction and released her debut novel, A Woman of Substance, aged 46.
A Woman of Substance, which tells the story of Emma Harte, a woman who builds a retail empire, remained on the New York Times bestsellers list for 43 weeks. It is still ranked in the top 10 bestselling works of fiction of all-time, with more than 32 million copies sold.
Bradford went on to write a further 39 novels, which have been published in more than 90 countries – with more than 92 million copies sold worldwide. She was awarded an OBE for her contributions to literature by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.
A number of Bradford’s novels have been adapted for both film and television, and a 1984 small screen version of A Woman of Substance saw Liam Neeson in a supporting role.
Arriving on Channel 4 in March, the new adaptation features Vera star Brenda Blethyn with Jessica Reynolds - whose previous credits include Derry Girls and House of Guinness - in the lead role.
