British novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford has died at the age of 91

Some sad news this morning – The Leeds-born novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford, best known for A Woman of Substance, has died at the age of 91.

A Woman of Substance sold 30 million copies, had seven sequels, and a television adaptation, which remains the most watched programme in Channel 4’s history.

Taylor Bradford went on to write 40 novels, including the Ravenscar, Cavendon and the House of Falconer.

Taylor Bradford was born in Leeds and left school at 15, becoming a typist and copytaker at the Yorkshire Evening Post, where she was promoted to become the paper’s only female reporter at the time.