Barbara Taylor Bradford: a real ‘Woman of Substance’

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Barbara Taylor Bradford, 76, is entitled to continue “Breaking the Rules,” as the name of her 25th novel suggests. After all, in the multifaceted world of romance writing, she wrote many of them.

No romance writer has been more successful or influential than Bradford. Her novels have sold more than 82 million copies worldwide. Her 1979 debut, “A Woman of Substance,” is among the 10 best-selling novels of all time (31 million and counting).

Ten of her books have been made into movies, most notably the 1984 six-hour TV miniseries version of “Substance.” It starred Deborah Kerr as the indomitable protagonist, Emma Harte, in her later years, and Jenny Seagrove as the younger Emma, along with Barry Bostwick, Liam Neeson and John Mills.

“Breaking the Rules” (St. Martin’s, $27.99, 423 pages) is the seventh title in what has become known as the Harte Family Saga. As a companion to that book, “A Woman of Substance” has been reissued in a special 30th anniversary paperback edition (St. Martin’s, $16.99, 911 pages).

Barbara Taylor was born and raised in Leeds, England. She moved to London and talked herself into a journalism job, eventually becoming a magazine fashion editor and columnist on Fleet Street. In 1961, she met film producer Robert Bradford on a blind date (“It was love at first sight”) and married him in London on Christmas Eve 1963. They relocated to the United States, where she wrote magazine articles and books on interior design before turning to romance novels in the mid-1970s.

Among her dozens of awards and honorary degrees is the Order of the British Empire, presented to her by Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in 2007, for “contributions to English literature.”

I caught up with Bradford by phone at the couple’s 5,000-square-foot apartment in Manhattan.

Her bio and other information are at her Web site, www.barbarataylorbradford.com.

Q. Like most of your women characters, the fashion model M in “Breaking the Rules” is determined and independent.

A. She is a Harte, after all, but you don’t know it’s a Harte Family book until the middle. After M has come to America (from England) and made it (as an acclaimed fashion model), strange accidents start happening to her and the people she cares about. We find out a psychopath has followed her to America.

Q. Your landmark title was “A Woman of Substance,” an epic rags-to-riches story about a Yorkshire servant girl who rises to fame and fortune as the head of a department store chain. At the end, Emma Harte says the secret of life is “to endure.”

A. I didn’t actually write a book with a message. I simply wanted to tell the story of a woman who was talented and good-looking, with a lot of stamina and drive and discipline and ambition. It’s about how she went from nothing to acquiring success and wealth.

At the same time, it’s not just about the substance of money, but the substance of character. She overcomes poverty and lack of education and terrible adversities to triumph as a human being with an understanding heart.

Q. Did you see much of yourself in Emma when you were modeling her character?

A. Not consciously, but I realized afterward that I’d given her a lot of my characteristics – mainly, determination to triumph over any kind of obstacle.

Q. Some of your characters are modern women placed in unmodern times.

A. I did place a 1970s woman (Emma) in 1904, but there were women like Emma in “those days.” Look at Florence Nightingale, who went tramping through the Crimean War, tending to British troops. There was Marie Curie, who was working as a scientist when women weren’t doing that. Look at the great businesswomen in cosmetics, Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein. I suppose I’ve always been attracted to the kind of women who did modern things, even though they weren’t 21st century women.

Q. An interviewer once asked if you feel your life has been like one of your novels. You said, “No, but everybody else does.” What’s a typical day for you?

A. I get up between 5 and 5:30 and feed the dogs – two bichon frises – and give one of them an insulin shot because she has diabetes. Then I’m in my office by 6:30 and finished by 5:30 in the evening.

Of course, I’m not writing all that time. I’ll do research or edit, or I’ll plan the next chapter and start it. When you write, there’s something called “thinking out your story.” I do an awful lot of sitting and staring through the window.

I do my research on a computer, but I write on a typewriter (an IBM Selectric). You know, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? I learned that saying here in America.

Q. Some of your characters are powerful businesswomen who travel and party around the world. Do you and your husband fit into that circle?

A. I don’t think you can be a social butterfly and a best-selling novelist and still take your work seriously. But we do like to travel. Bob and I go to France a lot, because he grew up there. We go all over the world. But we don’t want to swim in the jet-setting sea.

Q. You had some false starts before hitting with “A Woman of Substance.”

A. I wrote four books and put them away because I didn’t like them, but you can’t let failure get to you. If you write a book and (it doesn’t work out), you’ve got to do it again.

I don’t believe in writer’s block. I sold “A Woman of Substance” based on an outline and the first 192 pages, but that (represented) two years of sticking to it and not doing anything else. There were many days of tearing up paper and getting depressed and shedding tears and wanting to throw the typewriter on the floor.

Q. Romance and passion are very much parts of your characters’ lives. How do you and your husband keep your own spark glowing?

A. Well, he’s away a lot. No, I always say that. He used to be away a lot because he was always making movies somewhere around the world.

A lot of things go into it. Liking the person you are married to, as well as loving them and being in love with them. It’s about having respect for each other and being nice to each other. Bob is my best friend, companion, lover, husband and business partner. He’s everything.