Barbara Taylor Bradford, ‘A Woman of Substance’ Novelist, Dies at 91

Barbara Taylor Bradford, one of the world’s best-selling romance novelists, who captivated readers for decades with chronicles of buried secrets, raging ambitions and strong women of humble origins rising to wealth and power, died on Sunday. She was 91.

She died after a short illness, her publisher, HarperCollins, said on Monday. No other details were provided.

Beginning with the runaway success of her 1979 debut novel, “A Woman of Substance,” Ms. Bradford’s 40 works of fiction sold more than 90 million copies in 40 languages and were all best sellers on both sides of the Atlantic, according to publishers’ reports.

Ten of her books were adapted for television films and mini-series, and the author, a self-described workaholic whose life mirrored the rags-to-riches stories of many of her heroines, achieved global celebrity and amassed a $300 million fortune.

She was born in England into a working-class family whose grit inspired some of her stories. Her father lost a leg in World War I, her mother was born out of wedlock, and her grandmother once labored in a workhouse for the poor. She quit school at 15, became a journalist, married an American film producer and lived for 60 years in New York. She was a self-taught novelist, publishing her first when she was 46.

Exploiting exotic locales and an arsenal of steamy liaisons, mysterious deaths and feasts of betrayal and scandal, Ms. Bradford spun tales of love and revenge, infidelity and heartbreak that lofted resolute women into glittering lives with handsome men, mansions in London or Manhattan and the board rooms of global corporations. Empires were born in her pages, and sequels turned into dynasties.