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 Show less