Biography of Barbara Taylor Bradford

Barbara Taylor Bradford is quite a well known author. She wrote one of my favorite series which starts with the first book, "A Woman of Substance," about the main character Emma who grew up poor, but as she grew up, was extremely determined to become rich, which she did. All of these books in this series were hard to lay down, and I enjoyed them most of all Bradford's works. "The Woman of Substance," has sold more than 25 million copies and ranks as one of the best fiction books.

Barbara Taylor Bradford was born May 10th, 1933 in Leeds, Yorkshire. Her parents were Freda and Winston Taylor. Barbara was their only child. Her mother especially had the greatest influence of all on Barbara. Barbara's mother enforced reading a lot on Barbara since she was an avid reader herself. As a result, Barbara had strong reading skills, and read many books by the time she was in her pre-teen years.

Barbara attended school at the Northcote Private School for girls. She already had a part-time job by the time she was 15 as a typist working for the Yorkshire Evening Post. By the time she was 18, she was promoted to be an editor for the paper in the women's section. She did this for a couple of years before turning 20 when she went on to London. When she was in London, she then went on to be an editor for the fashion section at a newspaper known as Women's Own.

Barbara knew that she was cut out for journalism by the year of 1961. This was also the year that she met her husband who was Robert Bradford, who was an American film producer. The couple was married by the year of 1963, and it was at that time that Barbara had settled in the US. Though Barbara was still a journalist working on a column in Designing Woman, she still had the drive to really sit down and write fiction books. She tried for many years to write, but it didn't work out for her until the year of 1976, when her first book "A Woman of Substance," was successfully published. From that time on, Barbara worked and found much success as an author.

There are many awards that Barbara has received throughout her writing career. Some of these awards go all the way back to 1990 when she received a Degree of Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa, and another such award from Sienna College in New York.

To date, Barbara is about one of the richest authors known. Her fortune goes beyond 145 million dollars. A few of her books have also been made into movies.