Barbara Cartland

Barbara Cartland - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Barbara Cartland

Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland (9 July 1901 – 21 May 2000) was an English writer who published both contemporary and historical romance novels, the latter set primarily during the Victorian or Edwardian period. Cartland is one of the best-selling authors worldwide of the 20th century.

This profile of Barbara Cartland covers Early Life and Family Background, Marriage and Family Life, Novels, Contribution to aviation and Non-fiction books.

Many of her novels have been adapted into films for television, including: The Lady and the Highwayman, A Hazard of Hearts, A Ghost in Monte Carlo and Duel of Hearts.

Her novels have been translated from English into numerous languages, making Cartland the fifth most translated author worldwide, excluding biblical works. Her prolific output totals some 723 novels.

Although best known for her romantic novels, she also wrote non-fiction titles including biographies, plays, music, verse, drama, operettas, and several health and cook books. She also contributed advice to TV audiences and newspaper magazine articles.

She sold more than 750 million copies of her books, though other sources estimate her total sales at more than two billion. The covers of her novels featured portrait-style artwork, usually designed by Francis Marshall (1901–1980).

Cartland was also a businesswoman who was head of Cartland Promotions. She was a London society figure, often dressed in a pink chiffon gown, a plumed hat, blonde wig, and heavy make-up.

Early Life and Family Background of Barbara Cartland

Born at 31 Augustus Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, Cartland was the only daughter and eldest child of an officer of the British Army, Major James Bertram "Bertie" Falkner Cartland (1876–1918), and his wife, Mary Hamilton Scobell, known as "Polly" (1877–1976). Cartland had two brothers: Ronald, a Member of Parliament (MP) who served as an army major in World War II (1907–1940), and James Anthony "Tony" Hamilton Cartland (1912–1940). Both were killed in action in Flanders.

Though she was born into upper middle-class comfort, the Cartland family's finances rapidly deteriorated shortly after her birth. Cartland would later attribute this downturn to the suicide of her paternal grandfather, James Cartland, who, she stated, was a financier who shot himself in the wake of bankruptcy. But according to the entry in the probate registry, James Cartland, the proprietor of the brass foundry firm James Cartland & Son Ltd, left an estate of £92,000. This was followed soon afterwards by her father's death in Berry-au-Bac in World War I. Cartland's mother opened a London dry goods store to make ends meet, and to raise Cartland and her two brothers.

Cartland was educated at private girls' schools: The Alice Ottley School, Malvern Girls' College, and Abbey House, an educational institution in Hampshire. She became a successful society reporter after 1922, and a writer of romantic fiction; she stated she was inspired in her early work by the novels of the Edwardian author Elinor Glyn, whom she idolised and eventually befriended.

Marriage and Family Life of Barbara Cartland

According to an obituary published in The Daily Telegraph, Cartland broke off her first engagement, to a Guards officer, when she learned about sexual intercourse. She claimed to have declined 49 marriage proposals before marrying Captain Alexander "Sachie" George McCorquodale, on 23 April 1927, a British Army officer from Scotland and heir to a printing fortune. They divorced in 1933, and he died from heart failure in 1964.

Their daughter, Raine McCorquodale (9 September 1929 – 21 October 2016), who Cartland later alleged was the daughter of George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of Sutherland, or Prince George, Duke of Kent, became Debutante of the Year in 1947. After the McCorquodales' divorce in 1933, which involved charges and counter charges of infidelity, Cartland married her ex-husband's cousin, Hugh McCorquodale, on 28 December 1936. Cartland and her second husband, who died in 1963, had two sons: Ian Hamilton McCorquodale (11 October 1937 – 10 February 2023), a Debrett's publisher, and Glen McCorquodale (born 1939), a stockbroker.

Cartland maintained a long friendship with Lord Mountbatten of Burma, whose death in 1979 she said was the "greatest sadness of my life". Mountbatten supported Cartland in her 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 Charles, Prince of Wales, after Mountbatten was assassinated in Ireland, was the recipient of the proceeds of this book on its release in 1980.

When Cartland learned that young Diana Spencer loved reading her novels, Cartland began to send early copies. But as an adult, Diana, her step-granddaughter, did not invite Cartland to her wedding to Prince Charles. Cartland was later openly critical of Diana's divorce, though the rift between them was mended shortly before Diana's fatal car crash in Paris, in 1997. According to Susanna de Vries in her book Royal Marriages, Cartland once remarked, "The only books Diana ever read were mine, and they weren't awfully good for her."

Novels

After a year as a gossip columnist for the Daily Express, Cartland published her first novel, Jigsaw (1923), a risqué 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 1930s, Cartland was a prominent young hostess in London society, noted for her beauty, energetic charm and daring parties. Her fashion sense also had a part, and she was one of the first clients of designer Norman Hartnell; she remained a client until he died in 1979. He made her presentation and wedding dresses; the latter was made to her own design against Hartnell's wishes, and she admitted it was a failure.

In 1950, Cartland was accused of plagiarism by author Georgette Heyer, after a reader drew attention to the apparent borrowing of Heyer's character names, character traits, dialogue and plot points in Cartland's early historical romances. In particular, A Hazard of Hearts (1949) replicated characters (including names) from Heyer's Friday's Child (1944) and The Knave of Hearts (1950): Heyer alleged that "the conception..., the principal characters, and many of the incidents, derive directly from an early book of my own, entitled These Old Shades, first published in 1926.... For minor situations and other characters she has drawn upon four of my other novels." Heyer completed a detailed analysis of the alleged plagiarisms for her solicitors, but the case never came to court.

As well as writing novels, Cartland wrote a guide to married life in the 1950s, which was banned in Ireland.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Cartland), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.