Barbara Taylor Bradford
Desert Island Discs
BBC
4.3 • 14.3K Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 1985
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Barbara Taylor Bradford's first novel, A Woman of Substance, which was published in 1980, quickly became a huge international success. In conversation with Roy Plomley, she recalls her childhood in Leeds, her first job as a reporter on the Yorkshire Evening Post at the age of 16, becoming a Fleet Street journalist, and her eventual move to New York.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Jerusalem by Blake/Parry Book: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Luxury: Family photograph album
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. |
| 0:05.8 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:08.8 | The program was originally broadcast in 1985, and the presenter was Roy Plumley. This week our castaway is the best-setting novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford. |
| 0:34.7 | Barbara, does music mean a lot to you? |
| 0:41.3 | Oh yes, and it always has since I was a child, as a matter of fact, Roy. Do you play an instrument? No, I don't, only a typewriter. |
| 0:44.3 | Do you sometimes play discs while you're working, or do you like quiet? |
| 0:47.3 | Not when I'm actually writing, because I must have total quiet, |
| 0:51.3 | but I will often play something that I know will evoke a mood in me |
| 0:55.7 | that I can transfer to the character to put on paper. |
| 0:59.7 | Now, this list that I got here of your eight records, is there any kind of pattern in the list? |
| 1:06.8 | Is it mostly personal nostalgia? |
| 1:09.4 | Yes, I would say personal nostalgia, |
| 1:12.3 | and perhaps a couple have to do with a couple of my novels. |
| 1:16.2 | What's the first one? |
| 1:17.5 | The first one is Unbeldi from Madam Butterfly. |
| 1:21.9 | One Fine Day. |
| 1:22.8 | One Fine Day. |
| 1:24.1 | sung by Renata Tibaldi. |
| 1:26.5 | And that is the first operatic aria I remember actually hearing on a record at home when I was a child. |
| 1:34.8 | My mother loved opera, and I'm sure I heard others, but this is the one that's stuck in my mind. |
| 1:40.8 | And it's always been a great favourite, perhaps because it was a favourite of hers, |
| 1:44.8 | and it was, in fact, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.