Tributes have today been paid to best-selling novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, who has died aged 91.
The author died at her home in New York yesterday (Sunday, 24 November), her publicist announced today. She wrote a total of 40 novels during her career and sold more than 90 million copies worldwide, netting her an estimated fortune of more than £100 million.
Taylor Bradford was born in Upper Armley on 10 May 1933 to parents Winston and Freda Taylor.
Taylor Bradford attended Christ Church, Upper Armley, Church of England School and was a contemporary of writer Alan Bennett.
As a child during the Second World Was she held a jumble sale at Christ Church and donated the £2 proceeds to the “Aid to Russia” fund. She later received a handwritten thank-you letter fromCelmentine Churchill, the wife of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
She wrote in the Yorkshire Post last year: “I loved my time at Christ Church Elementary School and later Northcote Private School for Girls and while Armley might not be the most glamorous suburb of Leeds I will always remember it fondly.
“I haven’t been back to Armley for a fair number of years. The last time was when I was invited back to reopen a revamped wing of the library. Given that my library ticket was one of my most treasured possession as a child it was a real honour. While Armley is no longer the bucolic place I remember, standing on the front steps of the library I could have easily been back in the 1940s or 50s.”
She left school aged 15 and joined the typing pool at Yorkshire Evening Post, before moving on to be be reporter and the YEP’s first women’s editor, before moving to London aged 20 to work at the London Evening News and Woman’s Own magazine.
A career in fiction writing followed. Her bestsellers included A Woman of Substance – was published in 1979 and sold over 30 million copies worldwide – and Hold The Dream.
Taylor Bradford was awarded an OBE in 2007 for services to literature.
Tributes today came from Leeds West and Pudsey MP Rachel Reeves, who wrote on social media: “Very sad to hear of the death of Barbara Taylor Bradford. She was one of Leeds’s finest, an Armley legend and a powerhouse of a woman.”
Charlie Redmayne, CEO of publisher HarperCollins, said: “Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first book, the international bestseller A Woman of Substance changed the lives of so many who read it – and still does to this day.
“She was a natural storyteller, deeply proud of her Yorkshire roots – she would regale us of her time working on the Yorkshire Evening Post with fellow reporter Keith Waterhouse and trainee photographer Peter O’Toole, the dawn of the Soho café society, and the many happy years shared with the love of her life, her husband, Bob.
“For 45 years, she was a huge part of our company and a great, great friend – we will miss her so much – but there is some solace in the knowledge that she is now, once again, alongside her beloved Bob. A life well-lived….”
Urban geographer & local walking tour guide Rachael Unsworth added: “If @theleedslibrary had a flag on a pole, it would no doubt fly at half-mast today for novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford OBE, born and raised in Leeds, who became patron in November 2021.”