Barbara Cartland, a prolific figure in 20th-century women’s fiction, began to experience significant sensory decline in her later years, losing much of her sight and hearing. Her son Matthew explained that her reluctance to acknowledge these difficulties influenced aspects of her public image in her seventies, particularly her distinctive use of makeup despite limited vision.
Born in Birmingham in July 1901, Cartland published her first novel in 1925 and went on to captivate readers during the era of the Second World War. She was known for her signature themes—themes that often centered on women marrying the wrong men, with dramatic plot devices such as plane crashes frequently resolving these romantic entanglements. Cartland once remarked that her heroines "never go to bed without a ring on their fingers— not until page 118 at least." Her son noted that contemporary works like the television series "Bridgerton" share similarities to her stories, though with more explicit content earlier in the narrative.
Barbara Cartland's life bore parallels to her fiction in several respects. She married Alexander McCorquodale in 1927, and they had a daughter, Raine McCorquodale, who later became Princess Diana’s stepmother. After their divorce in 1933, Barbara married Hugh McCorquodale, Alexander’s cousin, in 1936. The couple had two sons, Ian and Glen. Hugh McCorquodale passed away in 1963 due to complications relating to injuries sustained during the 1916 Battle of the Somme.
Intriguingly, Barbara publicly claimed that Raine was in fact the biological daughter of Prince George, who died in a plane crash in 1942 while serving in the Second World War. Matthew Cartland recounted that many of Barbara’s romantic partners suffered tragic ends, often in plane or car crashes, or faced emotional crises. He highlighted an album Barbara kept containing photographs of her suitors, annotated with candid remarks such as “wanted to marry me,” “boring,” or “killed in an air crash that many believed to have been caused by a flying saucer.”
Despite her immense popularity during her lifetime—she remains one of the world’s best-selling authors—Barbara Cartland’s readership has declined significantly since her death. Matthew observed that modern romance writers sometimes view her work as a burden, even as millions of readers were deeply influenced by her novels. He emphasized her legacy in shaping women’s fiction for two generations, noting that for many, she was their sole gateway to literature.
A new biography titled "The Great Dictator: A Life of Barbara Cartland" by Matthew Sweet is set for release tomorrow by Hodder & Stoughton.