Celebrity Deathwatch: Dame Barbara Cartland, Best-selling romance novelist, 98

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http://www.cnn.com/2000/books/news/05/21/britain.obit.cartland.02.ap/index.h
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Best-selling romance novelist Dame Barbara Cartland dies at 98

May 21, 2000
Web posted at: 1:02 PM EDT (1702 GMT)


LONDON (AP) -- Dame Barbara Cartland, self-styled queen of romantic fiction
and considered the world's best-selling author, died in her sleep Sunday
after a short illness, her family said. She was 98.

Cartland's novels, about feminine virtue and manly ideals, were dictated to
a relay of secretaries as she reclined on a sofa, dressed usually in a
glamorous pink frock. She worked to a strict schedule, producing 6,000 to
7,000 words in an afternoon, and could finish a book in seven afternoons.

Reviewers generally ignored her work and she did not pretend to be a great
writer. But she was immensely popular.

Against the increasing pressures of the sexual revolution, Cartland carried
the banner of old-fashioned romance with unswerving dedication.

Sales of her 723 books exceeded 1 billion worldwide in 36 languages.

The popularity of her virginal heroines and commanding heroes seemed to grow
as society grappled with infidelity, divorce, abortion, drugs and AIDS.

"Personally I want to be loved, adored, worshipped, cossetted, and
protected. Judging by the Romantic boom, this is what women all over the
world want, too," she said in 1977, pointing out that she was a bestseller
in Europe, North America, Turkey, Singapore, India, the Philippines and Sri
Lanka.

"The permissive society has been an awful, crashing flop," she once said.
"There's no reason for all that pornography, which is quite disgusting."

But she insisted she was no prude, and was fond of France "because it is the
only country where you can make love in the afternoon without someone
hammering on the door."

Her crusade in the name of virginity brought her ridicule as well as
admiration, but even her critics acknowledged her as a force to be reckoned
with.

It was never clear whether she was strictly serious about her rather rococo
image because, as she herself said, "Nobody sends up Barbara Cartland better
than I do myself."

Her remarks to the press, however slight, were attention-getters.

"I always use boot polish on my eyelashes, because I am a very emotional
person and it doesn't run when I cry," she once told Martyn Harris of the
Sunday Telegraph.

Born July 9, 1901, she lost her father early, a casualty of World War I. Her
mother moved the family to London and opened a dress shop in Kensington to
support them.

Young Barbara was heavily influenced by the leading romantic novelists of
the time: Elinor Glyn and Ethel M. Dell. She also learned that "the things
that nice girls couldn't do seemed endless."

As a young woman she began making money by contributing items to a newspaper
gossip column at 5 shillings a paragraph. By the time she was 22 she was
writing articles about the social life of the bright young things of London,
their parties and short skirts.

She said publishing magnate Lord Beaverbrook tried but failed to acquire her
as a mistress, but befriended her and helped her career, introducing her to
famous people.

Her first novel, "Jigsaw," appeared in 1925.

In 1927 Cartland married Alexander McQorquodale, a wealthy Scot. Their
daughter Raine was born in 1928. They divorced in 1933.

She continued writing novels and working for newspapers, and in 1936 married
Hugh McQorquodale, a cousin of her ex-husband. They had two sons, Ian and
Glen.

Raine was married in 1948 to Gerald Legge, who later became Viscount
Lewisham. They divorced and Raine married the 8th Earl Spencer, whose
daughter was Princess Diana.

Hugh McQorquodale died in 1963.

Around age 50, Cartland began to develop her inimitable style. She was
always glamorously and femininely dressed, wore jewels, white fox furs and
rode in a white Rolls Royce.

She said her trademark color pink "helps our brain ... helps you to be
clever."

She took up the cause of homeless gypsies, promoted wages for mothers and
healthy eating habits and took dozens of vitamin pills a day.

In 1991 she was made a Dame of the British Empire. She said she was sure the
honor was not for her contributions to literature but for her efforts of
behalf of charities and the gypsies.

Asked where her ideas for so many books came from, she told The Associated
Press: "Prayer.

"I say a prayer. I really do. I say, 'Please God, get me a plot.' It's
absolutely extraordinary: Then a plot comes."

She had no interest in retiring.

"I think old people are so much better when they have something to do. ...
People retire at 65, which is wicked, go home to their boring wives and die
at once. The whole thing is you must keep going."

Her son Ian McCorquodale said in 1985: "She's a one-off; there is nobody
else remotely like her in the world."

Asked if she was afraid of death, Miss Cartland said in 1990, "Not a bit. It
will either be better than this life or nothing at all, in which case there
is no point in being frightened."

Her family said a small family funeral service and a memorial service would
be held. No dates were given.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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