Q and A with BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD

Barbara Taylor Bradford, OBE is one of the world’s best loved storytellers. Her 1979 debut novel, A Woman of Substance, ranks as one of the top-ten bestselling books of all-time, with more than 30 million copies in print.

To date, she has written 35 novels — all bestsellers on both sides of the Atlantic. Master Of His Fate is her latest.

We were delighted when she agreed to a Q and A with WWWB and we offered the members of our Facebook group the opportunity to come up with the questions. 

Q and A with Barbara Taylor Bradford

Q: Where did you grow up? How did your childhood impact the writer you’ve become? Did you always want to be a writer?

Barbara: I grew up in in Yorkshire. We lived in the suburbs of Leeds, but my mother came from Ripon, in the Dales, and we spent a lot of time there. My childhood had tremendous impact on my desire to be a writer. My mother taught me to read by the time I was four. She sort of forced fed Dickens to me. I started writing when I was seven, and I sold my first short story when I was ten. I was actually paid. But my by-line was more important. I always wanted to be a writer.

Q: Although you worked as a reporter and columnist for years previously, you were in your late thirties before your first novel was published. Do you wish you had done it earlier? Or do you believe your success is at least partially due to having worked and matured as a writer in other areas previously?

Barbara: I was a reporter and journalist throughout my twenties and thirties. But I never lost the desire to write fiction. There have been times when I wished I’d started writing my novels earlier, but I tend to believe that things happen when they’re supposed to. I think I needed to live life a bit before I could write a good novel.

Q: How did journalism shape you as a novelist?

Barbara: I think journalism shaped my writing in many ways. I went out to interview people, reported tragedies and horrific happenings all the time. I was made aware of the importance of the deadline, and of telling a lot in the first few paragraphs. Such as “who-where when what-how?” I added AND WHY? to that famous journalistic term. And I still ask myself those questions when I start a book.

Q: One thing that always strikes me about your work is how comfortable you are with (and good at depicting) different characters of different classes and backgrounds. Any tips on getting into the heart and soul of a character who is very different from you, the writer?

Barbara: I can’t really explain how I know a character inside out before I begin a novel. The story always starts with a character who pops into my head. Like James Falconer in MASTER OF HIS FATE. He was just there one day, rumbling around in my brain, fourteen years old. And I knew he was going to be a great tycoon. My only explanation is that I have a fertile brain and vivid imagination.

Q: How long did it take you to write A Woman of Substance?

Barbara: It took me two years to write A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE. But that was 7 days a week, with not many breaks. I just kept going until it was finished.

Q: Did you know any real Emma Hartes when you wrote A Woman of Substance?

Barbara: No, I did not know any Emma Hartes before I wrote the book. She was my invention, again sprang into my head like James Falconer.

Q: What is your writing routine like today and how has it changed since your early days, if at all?

Barbara: I write every day when I am working on a novel, taking only Saturday off. I need to keep it all in my head and that’s the best way to do that. Seven hours a day in my library; doing a lot of thinking: standing up for a salad at lunchtime. I finish about four. I am very disciplined. My routine has always been the same from my first novel. I start on page one and don’t jump around, I just work right through, step by step.

Q: What do you consider to be the best thing about writing, and the worst thing?

Barbara: The best thing about writing a novel is that it is like an adventure, a journey to foreign places, and unique people. The worst thing about writing is that it is a very selfish occupation.

Q: What is the best writing advice you’ve ever had, and the worst?

Barbara: The best advice I had was to start writing a novel, and keep going, writing for several hours a day. The worst advice I had was to forget about becoming a novelist, that many are called and few are chosen.

Q: Do you feel you need a specific space where you write or can you write anywhere?

Barbara: I prefer to write in my office at our apartment in New York. This one was actually designed as a library, so I had a place for all my reference books. However, if necessary, I can write anywhere…in a hotel room, on a ship.

Q: Some writers have weird writing rituals. What are your writing superstitions, if any?

Barbara: I don’t have any writing superstitions.

Q: How do you name your characters?

Barbara: I take a long time choosing the names of my characters, trying out combinations of first and last names. Once the name has a special ring to it, sounds good, then I keep it.

Q: What is currently on your reading list? Which book is your favorite of 2018?

Barbara: The book I am reading currently is CHURCHILL: WALKING WITH DESTINY by Andrew Roberts, a favorite English historian of nine. The book has been called the greatest one-volume biography of Churchill ever written, This is my favorite this year, and actually, I’m still reading it as it’s rather long. But oh how engrossing.

 

Find out more about Barbara on her website https://barbarataylorbradford.com

Follow her on Twitter @BTBNovelist

Like her on Facebook BarbaraTaylorBradford

MASTER OF HIS FATE, Barbara Taylor Bradford

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford comes the first book in a stunning new historical saga.

Victorian England is a country of sharp divides between rich and poor, but James Lionel Falconer, who spends his days working at his father’s market stall, is determined to become a merchant prince. Even as a child, he is everything a self-made man should be: handsome, ambitious, charming, and brimming with self-confidence. James quickly rises through the ranks, proving himself both hardworking and trustworthy, and catching the eye of Henry Malvern, head of the most prestigious shipping company in London. But when threats against his reputation – and his life – begin to emerge, James will have to prove that he truly is the master of his fate.

Through scandal and romance, tragedy and triumph, the Falconer and Malvern family’s lives intertwine in unexpected ways in this expansive and intricately detailed new novel filled with drama, intrigue, and Bradford’s trademark cast of compelling characters.

BUY THE BOOK HERE

 

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, Interviews, On Writing