Barbara Cartland

Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland (Birmingham, 1901 - Hatfield, 2000) was an English writer and society figure who became one of the best-selling authors of the twentieth century. She wrote both contemporary and historical romances, the latter usually set in the Victorian or Edwardian period. Her public persona made her a familiar face on British television and in the newspapers, where she was known for her pink gowns, plumed hats and strong opinions.

She was born in Birmingham, the only daughter of an army officer who was killed in Flanders during the First World War. The family, though of the upper middle class, fell into financial difficulty soon after her birth, and her mother opened a grocery shop in London to support Barbara and her two brothers, Ronald and Anthony, both of whom died in action during the Second World War. Cartland was educated at private girls' schools and worked as a society reporter before turning to romantic fiction. She acknowledged a debt to Elinor Glyn, the Edwardian novelist whom she admired and eventually got to know.

Her first novel, Jigsaw, was a bestseller, and in the 1920s and 1930s she moved in London's high society, where she was admired for her looks, her energy and her lavish parties. She also wrote daring plays, and one of them, Blood Money, was banned by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. Her output grew steadily until it reached some 723 novels, by most counts. Her stories mixed contemporary and historical settings, and her historical romances were often set in the Regency, Victorian or Edwardian eras. In 1950 the novelist Georgette Heyer accused her of borrowing characters and plot points from Heyer's own books for A Hazard of Hearts. The matter never reached a court.

Her books were translated into many languages, and in 1976 the Guinness Book of Records recognised her for writing the largest number of novels in a single year. After the Second World War she took up politics and charity work, serving for nine years as a Conservative councillor in Hertfordshire. In 1991 Queen Elizabeth II made her a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In the 1990s she became a media personality, commenting on love, marriage, fashion, religion and health. Her legacy is above all a publishing one: she built a loyal readership over decades and her name became synonymous with the classic romance novel.