A Woman of Substance

A Woman of Substance is a novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford, published in 1979. The novel is the first of a seven-book saga about the fortunes of a retail empire and the machinations of the business elite across three generations. The series, featuring Emma Harte and her family also includes Hold The Dream, To Be The Best, Emma's Secret, Unexpected Blessings, Just Rewards and Breaking the Rules. A Woman of Substance was adapted as an eponymous television miniseries as were the sequels Hold The Dream and To Be The Best.

The book starts with an elderly Emma flying to New York with her personal assistant and favourite grandchild, Paula. Emma contemplates the empire she has created. She has trained Paula to be her successor, both as the head of Harte Stores and as representative of her mother, Daisy Amory, at Sitex.

On their arrival in New York, Emma's secretary, Gaye, tells her she heard Emma's sons discussing a plan to force her to retire and break up her empire so the pieces can be sold. Devastated initially, Emma isn't surprised but changes her will, choosing to leave her business interests to her grandchildren instead.

The story then goes back to when Emma was a teenage servant at Fairley Hall, in rural Yorkshire. Her father, Jack, and two brothers, Winston and Frank, also work for the Fairley family. Jack and Frank work at the mill, and Winston works at the brickyard. After the death of his mother, Winston joins the navy, as he had wanted to since he was a child. As parlour maid, Emma sees a lot of the Fairley family and becomes friends with the younger son, Edwin. They bond over the deaths of their mothers. Emma also meets Blackie O'Neill, a wandering Irish navvy who has been hired to do some work at Fairley Hall, and they become fast friends. One day, Emma and Edwin realise they feel more for each other than friendship. Their friendship becomes intimate, and Emma gets pregnant. Edwin, horrified at this news, does not offer to marry her, so she runs away to Leeds. Wanting to protect herself and her child from gossip, Emma tells her landlady and new friends she is married to Winston, a sailor currently away at sea.

While looking for work, she meets Abraham Kallinski and rescues him from an anti-semitic attack by local youths. After she gets rid of them, she sees Abraham is unwell and walks him home. He introduces her to his wife, Janessa, and sons, David and Victor. Janessa, out of gratitude, invites Emma to stay for dinner. When Emma tells them she is looking for work, Abraham immediately offers her a job at his clothing workshop. He and David are pleased with Emma's work, and she becomes good friends with them.