Cartland, Dame Barbara Hamilton

▪ 2001

      British author (b. July 9, 1901, Edgbaston, Birmingham, Eng.—d. May 21, 2000, near Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Eng.), had a seven-decade-long career during which she wrote 723 books, sometimes at a rate of one every two weeks. Her works—most of them romance novels—sold more than a billion copies and were translated into some three dozen languages. Sales of her books broke records for 18 years and gained her the title of world's best-selling author in The Guinness Book of Records. Widely acknowledged as the queen of romance, Cartland created works peopled with virginal heroines and dashing, magnetic heroes who experienced great passion—but ripped no bodices—as they underwent intense trials, described in florid prose, on their way to their story's inevitable happy ending. She was also known for her copious use of makeup, for the pink frocks that dominated her wardrobe, for the fact that she was the step-grandmother of Diana, princess of Wales, and for having given herself the longest entry in Who's Who by listing all her books. Cartland had a finishing school education at Malvern Girls College and Abbey House, Netley Abbey, in Hampshire, and began her writing career by providing social gossip items to the Daily Express. She advanced to writing the stories herself and in 1925 published her first novel, Jigsaw. In 1927 Cartland married Alexander McCorquodale after having reportedly turned down proposals from at least four dozen other men. The marriage did not last, however, and in 1936 she married McCorquodale's cousin Hugh, with whom she remained until his death in 1963. Besides writing romance novels—which sported such titles as Again This Rapture (1947), The Tears of Love (1975), Revenge of the Heart (1984), and The Haunted Heart (1990)—as well as biographies and other nonfiction works on a range of subjects from diet and health to marriage and motherhood to stately homes, Cartland engaged in a number of social crusades. During World War II she organized the donation of hundreds of secondhand wedding dresses so that service brides might be married in white, and she later campaigned for rights for Gypsies. In 1991 Cartland was created DBE, an honour to which she had long aspired.

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