Barbara Cartland
| Dame Barbara Cartland DBE CStJ |
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|---|---|
 |
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| Born | Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland 9 July 1901 Edgbaston, Birmingham, England |
| Died | 21 May 2000 (aged 98) Camfield Place near Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | English |
| Period | 1925–2000 |
| Genre | Romance |
| Spouse | Alexander McCorquodale (m. 1927–1933) Hugh McCorquodale (m. 1936–1963) |
| Children |
Raine McCorquodale Ian Hamilton McCorquodale Glen McCorquodale |
| Relatives | Diana, Princess of Wales (step-granddaughter) |
Dame Barbara Cartland DBE CStJ (9 July 1901 – 21 May 2000), born as Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, was an English author of romance novels, one of the best-selling authors as well as one of the most prolific and commercially successful worldwide of the twentieth century. Her 723 novels were translated into 38 languages and she continues to be referenced in the Guinness World Records for the most novels published in a single year in 1976. As Barbara Cartland she is known for her numerous romantic novels but she also wrote under her married name of Barbara McCorquodale and briefly under the pseudonym of Marcus Belfry. She wrote more than 700 books, as well as plays, music, verse, drama, magazine articles and operetta, and was a prominent philanthropist. She reportedly sold more than 750 million copies. Other sources estimate her book sales at more than two billion copies. She specialised in 19th-century Victorian era pure romance. Her novels all featured portrait-style artwork, particularly the cover art, usually designed by Frances Marshall.
As head of Cartland Promotions, she also became one of London's most prominent society figures, of the latter always presenting herself in pink gown and plumed hat, she was one of Britain's most popular media personalities, right up until her death in 2000.
Born Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland at 31 Augustus Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, Cartland was the only daughter and eldest child of a British army officer, Major Bertram "Bertie" Cartland (born James Bertram Falkner Cartland 1876; died 27 May 1918, Berry-au-Bac), and his wife, Mary Hamilton Scobell, known as "Polly" (1877–1976). Cartland had two brothers: Ronald Cartland, a Member of Parliament (born in 1907), and James Anthony "Tony" Hamilton Cartland, (born in 1912). Though she was born into an enviable degree of middle-class comfort, the family's security was severely shaken after the suicide of her paternal grandfather, James Cartland, a financier, who shot himself in the wake of bankruptcy. According to the entry in the probate registry he left £92,000, suggesting little evidence of bankruptcy.
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