Barbara Cartland
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Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland DBE CStJ (9 July 1901 – 21 May 2000) was one of the most successful writers of romance novels of all time, specialising in historical love themes. She also became one of the United Kingdom's most popular media personalities, appearing often at public events and on television, dressed in her trademark pink and discoursing on love, health and social issues.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Kings Norton and christened in Edgbaston, Birmingham, she was the only daughter and eldest child of a British army officer, Major Bertram Cartland, and his wife, Mary (Polly) Hamilton Scobell. 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.
This was followed soon after by her father's death on a Flanders battlefield in World War I. However, her enterprising mother opened a London dress shop to make ends meet — "Poor I may be," Polly Cartland once remarked, "but common I am not" — and to raise Cartland and her two brothers, Anthony and Ronald, both of whom were eventually killed in battle, one day apart, in 1940.
After attending Malvern Girls' College and Abbey House, an educational institution in Hampshire, Cartland soon became successful as a society reporter and writer of romantic fiction. Cartland admitted she was inspired in her early work by the novels of Edwardian author Elinor Glyn, whom she idolised and eventually befriended.
[edit] Novels
- See also List of books by Barbara Cartland.
After a year as a gossip columnist for the Daily Express, Cartland published her first novel, Jigsaw (1923), a slightly naughty society thriller that became a bestseller. She also began writing and producing somewhat racy plays, one of which, Blood Money (1926), was banned by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. In the 1920s and '30s Cartland was one of the leading young hostesses in London society, noted for her beauty, energetic charm and daring parties. Her fashion sense also had a part in launching her fame. She was in fact one of the first clients of designer Sir Norman Hartnell, who was later appointed dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth II.
Barbara Cartland's image as a self-appointed "expert" on romance drew some ridicule in her later years, when her social views became more conservative. Indeed, although her first novels were considered sensational, Barbara Cartland's later (and arguably most popular) titles were comparatively tame with virginal heroines and few, if any, suggestive situations. Almost all of Cartland's later books were historical in theme, which allowed for the believability of chastity.
Despite their softcore story lines, Barbara Cartland's later novels were highly successful. By 1983 she rated the longest entry in the British Who's Who, and was named the top-selling author in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. In the mid-1990s, by which time she had sold over a billion books, Vogue magazine called her "the true Queen of Romance". She became a mainstay of the popular media in her trademark pink dresses and plumed hats, discoursing on matters of love, marriage, politics, religion, health and fashion. She was publicly opposed to the removal of prayer from state schools and spoke against infidelity and divorce, although she admitted to being acquainted with both "sins".
[edit] Contribution to aviation
Privately, Cartland took an interest in the early gliding movement. Although aerotowing for launching gliders first occurred in Germany, she thought of long distance tows in 1931 and did a 200 mile tow in a two-seater glider. The idea led to troop-carrying gliders. In 1984, she was awarded the Bishop Wright Air Industry Award for this contribution[1].
[edit] Marriage and relationships
According to an obituary published in The Daily Telegraph on 22 May 2000, Cartland reportedly broke off her first engagement, to a Guards officer, when she learned about the facts of life and recoiled. Eventually, she got over the shock of the physical mechanics involved and was married, from 1927 to 1932, to Alexander George McCorquodale, an Army officer who was heir to a British printing fortune (he died in 1964).
Their daughter, Raine McCorquodale (born in 1929), became "Deb of the Year" in 1947. After the McCorquodales' 1936 divorce, which involved charges and countercharges of infidelity, Cartland married a man her husband had accused her of dallying with — his cousin Hugh McCorquodale, a former military officer. She and her second husband, who died in 1963, had two sons, Ian and Glen.
Cartland maintained a long-time friendship with Lord Mountbatten of Burma, whose 1979 death she claimed was the "greatest sadness of my life". Mountbatten supported Cartland in her various charitable works, particularly for United World Colleges, and even helped her write her book Love at the Helm, providing background naval and historical information.
The Mountbatten Memorial Trust, established by Mountbatten's great nephew the Prince of Wales after Mountbatten was assassinated in Ireland, was the recipient of the proceeds of this book on its release in 1980.
In 1991, Barbara Cartland was invested by Queen Elizabeth II as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in honor of the author's nearly 70 years of literary, political and social contributions.
Cartland was openly critical of her step-granddaughter Diana, Princess of Wales's divorce from the Prince of Wales, which caused a rift between them, one mended shortly before Diana's fatal car crash in Paris in 1997.
[edit] Political influence
After the death during World War II of her brother Ronald Cartland, a popular Member of Parliament, she published a biography of him with a preface by the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. The war marked the beginning of a life-long interest in civic welfare and politics for Barbara Cartland, who served the War Office in various charitable capacities as well as the St. John Ambulance Brigade; in 1953 she was invested at Buckingham Palace as a Commander of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem for her services.
In 1955 Barbara Cartland was elected a councillor on Hertfordshire County Council as a Conservative and served for nine years. During this time she campaigned successfully for nursing home reform, improvement in the salaries of midwives, and the legalisation of education for the children of Gypsies. She also founded the National Association of Health, promoting a variety of medications and remedies, including an anti-aging cream and a so-called "brain pill" for increasing mental energy.
[edit] Celebrity status
Her high-profile in the UK, France and the United States between the 1970s and 1990s was aided greatly through her frequent appearance on TV talk shows. Her daughter's social success, which repeated and surpassed her own, also brought her added attention. Raine's marriage to the 9th Earl of Dartmouth, however, ended in divorce, and she remarried in 1976 to the 8th Earl Spencer, whose children included Lady Diana Spencer, the future Princess of Wales.
[edit] Later life and death
Her physical and mental health began to fail in her mid-90s but her spirit and courage were undiminished, and she remained a favorite with the press, granting interviews to international news agencies even during the final months of her life. Two of her last interviews were with the BBC and US journalist Randy Bryan Bigham.
Her last project was to be filmed and interviewed for her life story (Directed by Steven Glen for Blue Melon Films). The documentary, titled 'Virgins and Heroes', includes unique early home cine footage and Dame Barbara launching her website with pink computers in early 2000. At that time, her publishers estimated that since her writing career began in 1923, Dame Barbara Cartland had produced a total of 723 titles. After years of wearing her trademark anti-wrinkle cream and heavy makeup, she had herself photographed repeatedly without any cosmetics before she died. She was 98 years of age at her death.
Due to her concern for the environment, she requested to be buried in a cardboard coffin. This request was honoured and she was buried at her estate in Hatfield under a tree that had been planted by Queen Elizabeth I. [2]
