Barbara Taylor Bradford
Desert Island Discs
BBC
4.3 • 14.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 July 2003
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the popular novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford. Born in Upper Armley, Leeds, by the age of 16 Barbara had graduated from the typing pool and was a cub reporter in the newsroom of the Yorkshire Evening Post. By twenty she was Fashion Editor of Woman's Own in London.
In 1976, after a number of failed attempts, she sold her first novel to a publisher on the basis of a ten-page outline. That book A Woman of Substance, has gone on to sell in the region of 20 million copies. The heroine, Emma Harte, inspired such a following that she and her dynasty were the subjects of two further books and despite Emma being 'killed off' in the second, Taylor Bradford has resurrected her for a 'lost years' prequel this summer. Emma's Secret will be her 19th novel, with 10 of them made into TV films.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Vissi d'Arte by Giacomo Puccini Book: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Luxury: Bag of eye make-up, especially mascara
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Christy Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. |
| 0:05.9 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:08.9 | The program was originally broadcast in 1985, and the presenter was Roy Plumley. |
| 0:30.0 | This week, our cast weighs the best-selling novelist, Barbara Taylor Bradford. |
| 0:34.8 | Barbara, does music mean a lot to you? |
| 0:37.4 | Oh, yes, and it always has, since I was a child, as a matter of fact, Roy. |
| 0:41.2 | Do you play an instrument? |
| 0:42.4 | No, I don't. Only a typewriter. |
| 0:44.2 | Do you sometimes play discs while you're working or do you like quiet? |
| 0:48.1 | Not when I'm actually writing, because I must have total quiet, |
| 0:52.0 | but I will often play something that I know will evoke a mood in me |
| 0:55.9 | that I can transfer to the character to put on paper. |
| 0:59.9 | Now, this list that I got here of your eight record, |
| 1:03.8 | 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. |
| 1:16.3 | What's the first one? |
| 1:17.6 | The first one is Unbell D from Madden Butterfly. |
| 1:21.9 | One Fine Day. |
| 1:22.8 | One Fine Day. |
| 1:24.2 | Song by Renata de Balde. |
... |
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.