[1] She wrote 40 novels, often about young women of humble beginnings who rise through their hard work in business.

Her commercial success amassed a large fortune and she was awarded several honorary degrees and made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her literary contributions.

[4] As a child during the Second World War, she held a jumble sale at her school and donated the £2 proceeds to the "Aid to Russia" fund.

[4] In her youth, Barbara Taylor read Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Thomas Hardy, and Colette.

[4] Her biographer, Piers Dudgeon, later uncovered evidence that her mother Freda Walker was the illegitimate daughter of Oliver Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon, a local Yorkshire landowner who employed the author's grandmother, Edith Walker, as a servant.

[8] After working briefly in the newspaper's typing pool, Taylor became a reporter for the Yorkshire Evening Post.

[9] Bradford considered Irish historian and author Cornelius Ryan her literary mentor.

[3] In a 1979 interview with the New York Times, Bradford reflected on her career and anticipated legacy: "I'm not going to go down in history as a great literary figure.

"[12] A common pattern in her novels was a young woman of humble background rising in business through years of hard work, often involving enormous self-sacrifice.

[4][16] She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II as part of the 2007 Birthday Honours for her contributions to literature.

[19] Taylor met her husband, American film producer Robert E. Bradford, on a blind date in 1961 after being introduced by the English screenwriter Jack Davies.

There were rumours that she owned 2,000 pairs of shoes and that her former Connecticut home's lake was heated for the benefit of her swans.