‘A wave of grief for my over me. Everywhere Husband would sweep reminded me of Bob’
BARBARA Taylor Bradford is in town to blow the trumpet for her new book, A Man Of Honour. In scarlet jacket and black trousers, her soft blonde hair coiffed, you’d never guess she was 88. Certainly, she’s in barnstorming form.
For the first time, she says, she wrote this new book – her 39th – by hand. “I’ve always used an electric typewriter but my eyes aren’t good enough now to read what’s on the paper 22 inches away. I measured it!
“So, I bought some calligraphy pens and wrote all 428 pages by hand. It proved much quicker than typing although it gave me a bad back. My doctor said I’d developed what he called desk-itis.”
Her assistant turned it into a typescript and she handed it in in June.
“It might have happened sooner but I suffered what I can only describe as a second surge of grief.”
In July 2019, Bob Bradford, her adored husband of 56 years, had a stroke from which he didn’t recover.
He had stipulated a Do Not
‘I am British right down to my bones’
Resuscitate request and, after a week, Barbara consented to the machinery keeping him artificially alive to be switched off.
“I was devastated, the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.
“But I had to come to the UK soon afterwards to promote the second book in my Falconer trilogy as well as the 40th anniversary edition of A Woman Of Substance.
“When I had returned to my New York apartment, I tried to settle down to the third and final Falconer book, but I quickly became defeated by the prospect of all the research it would involve.
“Then I remembered, sitting beside Bob’s hospital bed, that it might be fun one day to return to the story of Emma Harte but, this time, to flesh in all the background to the story of Blackie O’neill, the man she ended up marrying.”
Emma’s story, of course, formed the backbone of A Woman Of Substance, Barbara’s phenomenally successful first novel published in 1979. It’s now in the Top 10 bestselling novels in history. Leeds-born
Barbara has gone on to write another 38 works of fiction, selling over 92 million copies in more than 40 different languages. She was appointed an OBE in 2007.
This latest idea was a good one but, even so, as she sat trying to write the outline of Blackie’s book, she’d find herself staring into space, the tears running down her cheeks.
“A wave of grief would sweep over me. Everywhere I looked reminded me of Bob.
“I was smart enough, though, to know that if you want to cry then you should let it out.”
The spell was broken at the beginning of May, just a couple of days before what would have been Bob’s 95th birthday. “I got a call from my London literary agents saying they’d been approached by a production company called The Forge.
“They wanted to take an option on the seven Emma Harte sagas, plus the new prequel, and turn them into a first-rate 10-hour TV series along the lines of The Crown.
“It cost Netflix £10million an hour to bring The Crown to the screen. So Emma’s story would cost an equivalent total of £100million. But I saw it as a sign from Bob, him looking after me from wherever he is.
“Before I signed the contract, though, I insisted on script, casting and location approval. I finally signed on the dotted line just before last Christmas.
“Someone said I should get a business manager to do all the things Bob used to do for me including turning 10 of my books into movies. But I wrote a book about a businesswoman and I felt I could be like Emma in regard to my own affairs.
“Now, if I’m ever in a quandary
what to do, I simply imagine asking Bob and I always come up with the answer. So, I deal with the book-keeper and the accountant and the stockbrokers.
“I know he would approve. Bob liked strong, independent women. And the truth is that work has been my saviour.”
Most recently, she’s been organising the apartment, sending out furniture to be re-upholstered, having the carpets and the chandeliers cleaned.
“And then I sat down to work out what the Falconer story was about.”
Has it ever occurred to her to make a new start in a different apartment? “Oh no,” she says, “I feel Bob is there with me to this day. I talk to him in my head all the time.”
So, she wouldn’t ever consider moving back to the UK on a permanent basis? She looks aghast. “Of course not. I can’t. Bob is there, buried in Westchester. And I bought the empty plot next to him so that one day we’ll be lying side by side together again.”
Also, no point asking whether she regards herself as British or American. “I’m British right down to my bones. I’m an Englishwoman living in New York.
“I love visiting the UK. It feels like coming home. I’m a big fan of the Prime Minister. If for no other reaabout son, Boris delivered Brexit. But it’s got nothing to do with immigration.
“What I cannot abide is the thought of a group of unelected officials in Belgium having jurisdiction over the Supreme Court in Britain. That court should be run by us, not by Brussels.”
Boris Johnson flew to New York in September, to address the UN about climate change, and Barbara met him subsequently at a private lunch.
“I first knew him when he was a journalist,” she says.
“He couldn’t have been nicer. He asked me with genuine concern how I was managing without Bob.”
She fishes around in her handbag and produces a smiling photograph on her mobile of her with the PM.
“I keep a keen eye on British politics. I get the English newspapers every day.”
She’s less enamoured of President Biden. “He did something so catastrophic which has changed the state of America for ever.
“Even a 15-year-old boy knows you don’t withdraw the troops from Afghanistan and leave the civilians behind.
“I wouldn’t want to be a woman in that country now.”
Barbara is a fierce royalist. “I think the Queen is magnificent. And William and Kate grow in stature by the day. She’s divine – and how does
‘We already have
a shining star’
she stay so slim?” She used to be fascinated, as an Englishwoman in New York, tracking the progress of an American woman living in London. So, what does she now think of Meghan?
A curl of the lip.
“Meghan came to the UK imagining she’d be the star of the red carpet even though she wasn’t much more than a starlet in America.
“What she didn’t realise is we already have a shining star on the red carpet, someone who’s been there for 70 years. She’s called the Monarch.”
And don’t start Barbara on that Oprah Winfrey interview.
“There was no journalistic rigour. She appeared to be totally in awe of Meghan and Harry.
“My attitude is: they’ve gone to California.well, good riddance!”
A Man Of Honour by Barbara Taylor Bradford [Harpercollins, £16.99], published on Thursday. For free UK P&P on orders over £20, call Express Bookshop on 020 3176 3832 or visit expressbookshop.com