A Woman of Substance

Now a major new Channel 4 series starring Brenda Blethyn (Vera) and Jessica Reynolds (Outlander) from OBE‑honoured, award‑winning author Barbara Taylor Bradford

One girl. One secret. One unstoppable ascent.

In 1905 a young kitchen maid leaves Fairley Hall. Emma Harte is sixteen, single and pregnant.

By 1968 she is one of the richest women in the world, ruler of a business empire stretching from Yorkshire to the glittering cities of America and the rugged vastness of Australia.

But what is the price she has paid?

‘Rivals meets Poldark, with a dash of Downton and Dynasty’ Guardian

'Still a story for our times' The Times

‘ [This] blockbuster 1979 period saga of female empowerment has been remade for a new generation' Daily Mail

‘An extravagant, absorbing novel of love, courage, ambition, war, death and passion’ New York Times

‘Few novelists are as consummate as Barbara Taylor Bradford at keeping the reader turning the page. She is one of the best at spinning yarns’ Guardian

Reviews

‘An extravagant, absorbing novel of love, courage, ambition, war, death and passion.’ New York Times

‘A mighty saga. Little has been so riveting since Gone With the Wind’ Evening News

‘Brilliantly told…this is a family saga that is worth all its 608 pages’ Manchester Evening News

‘A long, satisfying novel of money, power, passion and revenge, set against the sweep of 20th-century history.’ Los Angeles Times

‘The storyteller of substance’ The Times

About the author

Barbara Taylor Bradford was born and raised in Leeds. She left school at 15 for the typing pool at the Yorkshire Evening Post.

At 16, she became a reporter on the paper and, at 18, its first Woman’s Editor. Aged 20, she moved to London and became a columnist and editor on Fleet Street.

Her first novel, A Woman of Substance, is one of the bestselling novels of all time and Barbara’s books have sold more than 90 million copies worldwide. In 2007, Barbara was appointed an OBE by the Queen for her services to literature.

Barbara was married to her beloved husband, television and film producer Robert Bradford, for 55 years until he died in 2019. She continued to live in New York and write novels, her last entitled The Wonder of It All, until she died in November 2024.