Author Barbara Taylor Bradford, known for her best-selling novels including A Woman of Substance, has died at the age of 91.

Published in 1979, A Woman of Substance sold 30 million copies and spawned seven sequels and a TV adaptation, which remains the most watched program in Channel 4’s history.

It was the first of 40 novels by Taylor Bradford; others include the Ravenscar, Cavendon and House of Falconer series.

In tribute, her publisher and editor Lynne Drew said: ‘She dominated the bestseller lists and broke new ground with her sweeping epic novels that spanned generations, novels that were resolutely not romances, and she embodied the woman of substance she created, especially with her relentless work ethic.”

The author was “eternally curious, interested in everyone and extremely driven,” Drew said, and was “an inspiration to millions of readers and countless writers.”

Charlie Redmayne, CEO of publisher HarperCollins, said: “Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first book, the international bestseller A Woman of Substance, changed the lives of so many who read it – and continues to do so to this day today.”

She was “a natural storyteller” and “a wonderful, wonderful friend,” he added.

A Woman of Substance was the story of Emma Harte, a young woman who goes from being a maid to building and running a large department store.

The miniseries was watched by almost 14 million people on Channel 4 in 1985 and was nominated for two Emmy Awards.

Emma was played by Jenny Seagrove, who paid tribute to the author as a “dear friend”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World at One, Seagrove recalled being a young and nervous actress when she first met Taylor Bradford.

“I met Barbara at a screening (of A Woman of Substance) and just walked up and she hugged me and said, ‘Oh, you’re my Emma.’

“That was all I needed. I burst into tears.”

She added that the book was semi-autobiographical and “you could feel the truth in it”.

Taylor Bradford had a huge impact on women, Seagrove said.

“We went on publicity tours… and women would randomly come up to me… and say, ‘You changed my life,’ because Emma Harte had changed their lives in some way, (like) to be a business. It literally changed women’s lives.”

The actress said she went to the US last year for Taylor Bradford’s 90th birthday celebration.

‘Even though she was sick, she put on her nice clothes and was led in by a bagpiper. She just never changed. She was always curious, always kind, always standing up for women and always giving and sharing.

“She championed women before it was fashionable, and that’s a great legacy,” Seagrove added.

A statement from Taylor Bradford’s rep on Monday said she “passed away peacefully yesterday (November 24, 2024) at her home after a brief illness, and was surrounded by loved ones until the end.”

Taylor Bradford was born in Leeds, where her mother ‘force-fed me books’, and she was in the same primary school class as Alan Bennett.

Young Barbara had her first story published in a children’s magazine at the age of 10 and left school at 15 to work as a typist and copytaker at the Yorkshire Evening Post.

She got her first stories onto the pages of the newspaper by surreptitiously slipping them into the sub-editor’s tray. It took the editors some time to realize what she was doing, but they then promoted her to journalist, and she was the paper’s only female reporter at the time.

She then wrote a column on interior decoration that was published in 183 newspapers her first books were about home design.

They include the Complete Encyclopedia of Homemaking Ideas in 1968, and she also wrote a series of articles in the How to be the Perfect Wife series.

Her first foray into fiction, in her mid-forties, brought enormous success and broke the mold.

“When I wrote A Woman of Substance, I didn’t think, I’m going to write about a woman warrior who conquers the world and shatters the glass ceiling, but I did want to write about women in a positive way.” she told the Guardian in 2017.

“At the time there were a lot of very sexy books, but the women didn’t come off very well.”

Her other novels include the Ravenscar trilogy, about a 20th-century dynasty that ended with 25-year-old Elizabeth, loosely based on Elizabeth I, at the head of a business empire.

The four-book Cavendon series follows two families – one aristocratic, the other their servants – from the 1920s to the 1940s.

Standalone novels included A Sudden Change of Heart, The Women in His Life and A Secret Affair.

Her most recent novel, The Wonder of Everything, was published last year.

“I think people understand now, I write about women warriors – women who go out and conquer the world, who will not depend on anyone,” the author told BBC Radio 3’s Private Passions in 2022.

“They’re going to have a career, and they’re going to be successful, and they’re driven, ambitious, disciplined and determined.

“And I think I’ll keep borrowing from myself, because that’s how I was made.”

Several of her books were made into TV or film versions. A Woman of Substance starred Liam Neeson opposite Seagrove, while Elizabeth Hurley appeared in 1989’s Act of Will, and Anthony Hopkins appeared in 1991’s To Be The Best.

The film adaptations were made by the author’s husband, Hollywood producer Robert Bradford.

They married on Christmas Eve in 1963, after which she moved to the US. He died in 2019.

Taylor Bradford’s spokeswoman said she would be buried next to her late husband in New York.

Taylor Bradford was appointed OBE by Queen Elizabeth in 2007 for services to literature, and has also served as ambassador for the National Literacy Trust.

In her tribute, the charity praised her as “a passionate advocate for improving literacy skills throughout her life”, saying she “helped transform lives in some of Britain’s most deprived communities”.