Barbara Taylor Bradford
Best-selling novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford talks about the secret to a happy marriage, learning to stand up for herself and her top tips for writers
you have to be confident
I started my career aged 16 as a reporter with the Yorkshire Evening Post. At that time, women didn’t work on newspapers and I knew the reporters didn’t want me there because I was a girl. But I learned to make myself inconspicuous. I realised that if you get on with your work, look serious and show you want this job that you’ll get treated with respect. And gradually the reporters grew to like me when they realised I was a nice girl. That job taught me to stand on my own two feet and be confident.
stay true to your mission
Over the years my writing has changed a little in that I’ve tightened up my words and I don’t use so many adjectives. But I’m still really doing the same thing. I write about ordinary women – like we all are – who do extraordinary things with a little drive and ambition. I call them my women warriors who conquer the world.
inspiration can strike at any time
People often ask me where I get my ideas from and I have to say I don’t know. I can just be sitting at my desk writing a letter or a book chapter and suddenly a character pops into my head. For example, my character Emma from A Woman of Substance came to me long before I wrote the book. I just kept seeing this little girl walking across the moors and I knew she was going to be famous and successful.
never stare too long at a blank page
When writing a book, I always write a chapter in hand on a yellow pad before I start writing with a machine. If I have moments where I’m staring at an empty page for half a day, I simply walk away and do something else for a while. A piece of paper can be very intimidating when you’ve got nothing to put on it. Then I come back and try to write something. It’s important to get down on paper what you’re trying to say and then the next day you can come back and work on it, but at least the seed of the idea is already there.
a marriage needs good manners
You can’t just be in love with your partner, I think you’ve got to like them, too. Bob (her film producer husband of nearly 55 years) and I have lots in common and we’ve always got on well. He’s thoughtful and wellmannered and that’s important in a relationship. We don’t bicker so much these days but when we had rows years ago we were always careful never to call one another a bad name because words are my life and I know that words can hurt.