'Women can't have it all...'
She is the doyenne of the international bestseller, a prolific powerhouse whose stories of self-made women have brought her fame and fortune – and led her, for a time, to be a columnist for this publication. So I tiptoe gingerly to meet Barbara Taylor Bradford at her London hotel, half-expecting a terrifying grande dame. But, dripping in jewels and with luminous skin, she is more like a society hostess: warm and welcoming.
She has been topping the charts for decades and is still writing novels at 80. Her latest, Cavendon Hall, set just before the Great War, captures the life and secrets of a stately home. ‘I wrote it in six months – mind you, 10 hours a day, seven days a week,’ she says, ‘but I do know a lot about the period.’
And a very fashionable period it is, too – we can’t get enough of dramas like Downton Abbey and Mr Selfridge. Barbara, however, has been doing it for years. ‘I was writing these kinds of books long before Downtown Abbey was born.’
So why are we so obsessed with period dramas set in grand houses? Ever the perfect hostess, before she answers, she waves at the waiter who has forgotten my Earl Grey – we can’t talk statelies, it seems, without tea.
‘It was a more gracious way of living, the clothes were beautiful, and it’s interesting to see how aristocrats and servants interacted. They are popular around the world, so it can’t just be because we’re English. Perhaps it’s a kind of escapism.’
And what about today’s real-life stately homes: are they still viable? After all, even the royal palaces are struggling, with recent news of leaking roofs and insufficient funds – the Queen’s cash reserves are apparently down to the last £1m. In these times of austerity, should the public pay for the upkeep of the royal residences? She doesn’t hesitate: ‘Yes, I think we should pay, because the Queen and the Royal Family, the younger ones especially, are a great tourist attraction. The money that is made in this country from the Royal Family is enormous. I don’t think people would come here as often if they couldn’t go to Buckingham Palace and Windsor. I am a royalist, totally. We can’t do enough for the Queen as far as I’m concerned.’
I wonder where her fascination with stately homes comes from, and she immediately turns to her Yorkshire childhood. ‘My mother took me to Studley Royal and Newby Hall, and a lot of other places. I remember her always saying to me, “I want you to keep your eyes open, don’t miss anything.” She knew a lot about those places, and I enjoyed going. Maybe that’s when it did start, and maybe it’s because of her there’s something called Cavendon Hall. I think my mother made me what I am.’
In a twist worthy of her novels, Studley Royal, seat of the Marquess of Ripon, turned out to have a very personal connection: Barbara’s biographer found evidence to suggest her mother might be the late Marquess’s illegitimate daughter. ‘I have no idea if she really was or not, but it’s probable. It would explain a lot about how she brought me up. She would have had contact with that world, but also the desire to give me a different life from the one she had.’
With her novelist’s eye for relationships, I can’t resist asking her about the François Hollande affair in France. A presidential love triangle in the corridors of power, with glossy, high-achieving women; it could be one of her storylines.
‘I couldn’t possibly write about such a stupid man,’ she blurts out, mock-indignantly. ‘Here is a man who had four children with a woman [fellow politician Ségolène Royal], and then after 30 years he dumps her for this journalist, Valérie Trierweiler, and in the meantime it turns out he’s been cheating on her for two years.
‘It was his son by Royal who introduced him to that actress Julie Gayet – did you know that? So the son was getting his revenge for his mother – that’s what I think, as a novelist!’
With his scooter, his helmet and suburban salesman looks, the French president may be a somewhat uninspiring character, but what about the women? That’s another national obsession, I suggest. French women: thinner, ‘chicer’, better?
‘Well, I do think they are thinner and ‘chicer’, actually. And I wonder what their secret is about being thinner. But I don’t like being too bitchy about French women – or any woman. I don’t want to say anything about the three that are caught up in this – the mother of his children, the mistress and mistress number two.’ But then she quips naughtily: ‘Will there be a mistress number three? Jimmy Goldsmith said it best: “When you marry your mistress, you create a vacancy.”’
Good point, even if Hollande has never married. ‘Maybe they didn’t want to marry him, I don’t know, but if it had been me, I would have wanted to be married.’
As someone who writes inspiringly about driven and successful women, what would she say to aspiring career girls? ‘You must be very focused and not lose sight of your goals. Talent isn’t enough: what’s going to take you a long way is ambition. It’s very tough for a woman today if she’s married and has children and a career. You can’t have it all, because there aren’t enough hours in the day.
‘I was lucky: I had a husband [she has been married to her television producer husband, Robert, since 1963] who understood that I needed space. And when you work at home you can do a lot of things that you can’t when you have to get dressed and put on make-up and a hat and piece of fur and go to an office,’ she says, eyeing my outfit – cue instant pang of guilt for the time spent at my dressing table, as opposed to punching the glass ceiling.
But she is actually being sympathetic: ‘It’s tough to do all that. When I’m writing, I just fl op into some loose clothes – but when I’m doing this,’ she says of the promotional book tour, ‘I think, “My God, some women have to do this every day.”’
She has no children but has accumulated many protégés over the years. Natalie Massenet, visionary founder of online high-fashion giant Net-a- Porter, is one of them. ‘They all call me godmother and fairy godmother. I love to see them succeed.’ If only I had a mentor like her.
One of the world’s top-selling authors, Barbara could well aff ord to retire, but no chance. A sequel to Cavendon Hall is already in the pipeline, and she’s just been appointed ambassador for the National Literacy Trust. The glittering, captivating saga of Barbara Taylor Bradford continues. Watch this space.
Cavendon Hall by Barbara Taylor Bradford is published by HarperCollins, priced £16.99.
SPREADING THE WRITTEN WORD
Barbara Taylor Bradford’s commitment to empowering women goes well beyond the pages of her novels. A long-standing campaigner for women’s literacy, she has written a story for Quick Reads, an organisation that promotes reading by producing short, accessible books. As an ambassador to the National Literacy Trust, she will be an o cial champion of women’s literacy with a programme of talks, discussions in Parliament and visits to schools.
0116-204 4200, www.quickreads.org.uk
www.literacytrust.org.uk
She has been topping the charts for decades and is still writing novels at 80. Her latest, Cavendon Hall, set just before the Great War, captures the life and secrets of a stately home. ‘I wrote it in six months – mind you, 10 hours a day, seven days a week,’ she says, ‘but I do know a lot about the period.’
And a very fashionable period it is, too – we can’t get enough of dramas like Downton Abbey and Mr Selfridge. Barbara, however, has been doing it for years. ‘I was writing these kinds of books long before Downtown Abbey was born.’
So why are we so obsessed with period dramas set in grand houses? Ever the perfect hostess, before she answers, she waves at the waiter who has forgotten my Earl Grey – we can’t talk statelies, it seems, without tea.
‘It was a more gracious way of living, the clothes were beautiful, and it’s interesting to see how aristocrats and servants interacted. They are popular around the world, so it can’t just be because we’re English. Perhaps it’s a kind of escapism.’
And what about today’s real-life stately homes: are they still viable? After all, even the royal palaces are struggling, with recent news of leaking roofs and insufficient funds – the Queen’s cash reserves are apparently down to the last £1m. In these times of austerity, should the public pay for the upkeep of the royal residences? She doesn’t hesitate: ‘Yes, I think we should pay, because the Queen and the Royal Family, the younger ones especially, are a great tourist attraction. The money that is made in this country from the Royal Family is enormous. I don’t think people would come here as often if they couldn’t go to Buckingham Palace and Windsor. I am a royalist, totally. We can’t do enough for the Queen as far as I’m concerned.’
I wonder where her fascination with stately homes comes from, and she immediately turns to her Yorkshire childhood. ‘My mother took me to Studley Royal and Newby Hall, and a lot of other places. I remember her always saying to me, “I want you to keep your eyes open, don’t miss anything.” She knew a lot about those places, and I enjoyed going. Maybe that’s when it did start, and maybe it’s because of her there’s something called Cavendon Hall. I think my mother made me what I am.’
In a twist worthy of her novels, Studley Royal, seat of the Marquess of Ripon, turned out to have a very personal connection: Barbara’s biographer found evidence to suggest her mother might be the late Marquess’s illegitimate daughter. ‘I have no idea if she really was or not, but it’s probable. It would explain a lot about how she brought me up. She would have had contact with that world, but also the desire to give me a different life from the one she had.’
With her novelist’s eye for relationships, I can’t resist asking her about the François Hollande affair in France. A presidential love triangle in the corridors of power, with glossy, high-achieving women; it could be one of her storylines.
‘I couldn’t possibly write about such a stupid man,’ she blurts out, mock-indignantly. ‘Here is a man who had four children with a woman [fellow politician Ségolène Royal], and then after 30 years he dumps her for this journalist, Valérie Trierweiler, and in the meantime it turns out he’s been cheating on her for two years.
‘It was his son by Royal who introduced him to that actress Julie Gayet – did you know that? So the son was getting his revenge for his mother – that’s what I think, as a novelist!’
With his scooter, his helmet and suburban salesman looks, the French president may be a somewhat uninspiring character, but what about the women? That’s another national obsession, I suggest. French women: thinner, ‘chicer’, better?
‘Well, I do think they are thinner and ‘chicer’, actually. And I wonder what their secret is about being thinner. But I don’t like being too bitchy about French women – or any woman. I don’t want to say anything about the three that are caught up in this – the mother of his children, the mistress and mistress number two.’ But then she quips naughtily: ‘Will there be a mistress number three? Jimmy Goldsmith said it best: “When you marry your mistress, you create a vacancy.”’
Good point, even if Hollande has never married. ‘Maybe they didn’t want to marry him, I don’t know, but if it had been me, I would have wanted to be married.’
As someone who writes inspiringly about driven and successful women, what would she say to aspiring career girls? ‘You must be very focused and not lose sight of your goals. Talent isn’t enough: what’s going to take you a long way is ambition. It’s very tough for a woman today if she’s married and has children and a career. You can’t have it all, because there aren’t enough hours in the day.
‘I was lucky: I had a husband [she has been married to her television producer husband, Robert, since 1963] who understood that I needed space. And when you work at home you can do a lot of things that you can’t when you have to get dressed and put on make-up and a hat and piece of fur and go to an office,’ she says, eyeing my outfit – cue instant pang of guilt for the time spent at my dressing table, as opposed to punching the glass ceiling.
But she is actually being sympathetic: ‘It’s tough to do all that. When I’m writing, I just fl op into some loose clothes – but when I’m doing this,’ she says of the promotional book tour, ‘I think, “My God, some women have to do this every day.”’
She has no children but has accumulated many protégés over the years. Natalie Massenet, visionary founder of online high-fashion giant Net-a- Porter, is one of them. ‘They all call me godmother and fairy godmother. I love to see them succeed.’ If only I had a mentor like her.
One of the world’s top-selling authors, Barbara could well aff ord to retire, but no chance. A sequel to Cavendon Hall is already in the pipeline, and she’s just been appointed ambassador for the National Literacy Trust. The glittering, captivating saga of Barbara Taylor Bradford continues. Watch this space.
Cavendon Hall by Barbara Taylor Bradford is published by HarperCollins, priced £16.99.
SPREADING THE WRITTEN WORD
Barbara Taylor Bradford’s commitment to empowering women goes well beyond the pages of her novels. A long-standing campaigner for women’s literacy, she has written a story for Quick Reads, an organisation that promotes reading by producing short, accessible books. As an ambassador to the National Literacy Trust, she will be an o cial champion of women’s literacy with a programme of talks, discussions in Parliament and visits to schools.
0116-204 4200, www.quickreads.org.uk
www.literacytrust.org.uk