Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankie Listener discretion advised. The year
Speaker 1: eighteen o eight, the setting Regency, England. There we meet
Speaker 1: a man called Sir Giles Staverlely, a gambling addict who
Speaker 1: attempted to win back all he had by betting his
Speaker 1: daughter Serena's hand in marriage and betting her eighty thousand
Speaker 1: pound trust fund, but he lost once again, and unable
Speaker 1: to face his daughter, he instigated and lost a duel
Speaker 1: on purpose, ultimately killing himself. This left Serena's fate in
Speaker 1: the hands of the man her father lost to, Lord
Speaker 1: Justin Vulcan, who she'd been told was simply the worst
Speaker 1: sort of rake. She swore she could never fall in
Speaker 1: love with a man like Lord Vulcan, but after he
Speaker 1: invited her to come live at his estate, Man Drake,
Speaker 1: the two come to form an unlikely bond, but they
Speaker 1: also had to contend with Justin's scheming mother, highwaymen, gamblers,
Speaker 1: and smugglers before the two of them could admit their feelings.
Speaker 1: In case you haven't realized, that is, of course all
Speaker 1: a work of fiction, a historical romance written long before
Speaker 1: any of the Bridgeton's stepped into their semi anachronistic shoes.
Speaker 1: Published in nineteen forty nine, A Hazard of Hearts was
Speaker 1: just one of over seven hundred works published by Dame
Speaker 1: Barbara Cartland, otherwise known as the Queen of Romance. Her
Speaker 1: work earned her many fans of all ages, including a
Speaker 1: young Diana Spencer, who would eventually become both the Princess
Speaker 1: of Wales and Barbara's own step granddaughter. Despite not being
Speaker 1: born with a title, Barbara would run in noble circles
Speaker 1: her entire life, including her connections to her dearest friend,
Speaker 1: Lord Mountbatten of Burma, Prince Philip's uncle, and other men
Speaker 1: of high birth that she would allege were the potential
Speaker 1: true fathers of her daughter. To this day, Barbara continues
Speaker 1: to hold her spot as the fifth most translated author worldwide,
Speaker 1: thanks to the success of novels like A Hazard of Hearts,
Speaker 1: as well as The Cruel Count, The Angel and the Rake,
Speaker 1: and my personal favorite title, The Marquise Who Hated Women,
Speaker 1: all featuring fantastically illustrated covers that are, as best as
Speaker 1: I can describe them, buttoned up bodice rippers. More on
Speaker 1: the purity later, though some of those novels were even
Speaker 1: adapted into films. A Hazard of Hearts was made for
Speaker 1: television in nineteen eighty seven, featuring a fresh faced Helena
Speaker 1: Bonham Carter in one of her first major roles as
Speaker 1: the unlucky Angenoux Serena. A print ad for the film
Speaker 1: read quote, he captured her body with force, he freed
Speaker 1: her soul with passion. That is more often and not
Speaker 1: a general theme in Barbara's novels. An innocent girl is
Speaker 1: caught up in a dastardly scheme, but she ultimately makes
Speaker 1: a good man out of a not so good one.
Speaker 1: Barbara certainly did not invent the tropes of the romance novel,
Speaker 1: but it's not a stretch to say she defined them
Speaker 1: for an era. Still, we can't say her extensive collection
Speaker 1: is exclusively one note. Heroiness also include a professional figure skater,
Speaker 1: a quote lovely young gang leader, and a Scottish spy
Speaker 1: in the French court watching over a young Mary Stuart,
Speaker 1: which should delight any of our listeners over on Patreon
Speaker 1: who have been listening to our recap of the television
Speaker 1: show Rain. As time went.
Speaker 2: On and Barbara continued to produce more and more books
Speaker 2: every year. She became a British culture figure, frequently showing
Speaker 2: up in print and on television to discuss her thoughts
Speaker 2: on love and morality in an extensive and iconic pink wardrobe.
Speaker 2: Barbara may have been the Queen of Romance, but as
Speaker 2: we will learn from her once fan Diana, fairytale stories,
Speaker 2: especially when they involve nobles, don't always follow a simple
Speaker 2: plot structure. I'm Dana Schwartz and this is noble blood.
Speaker 2: Gwenn Robbins authorized biography of Barbara Cartland begins by making
Speaker 2: something very clear. Quote. Firstly, she is a direct descendant
Speaker 2: of the oldest Saxon family in existence. End quote. Barbara's
Speaker 2: mother's ancestor was apparently Thomas de Scovenhol, the High sh
Speaker 2: Sheriff of Devonshire thirty two years before the Norman conquest.
Speaker 2: From him, you can trace the family lineage directly to
Speaker 2: Mary Hamilton Scobel aka Polly, Barbara's mother. The family faced
Speaker 2: major upheaval shortly after Barbara was born in nineteen oh one.
Speaker 2: Her paternal grandparents, the Cartlands, had been suddenly bankrupted when
Speaker 2: their bank surprise called in immediate payment on a twenty
Speaker 2: five thousand pound loan that Barbara's grandfather, James, had taken out.
Speaker 2: That very weekend, Barbara's parents left young Barbara to go
Speaker 2: visit the distraught grandparents, inviting them to come stay with
Speaker 2: the young family. The elder Cartlands refused to leave their home,
Speaker 2: and James told his daughter in law that he would
Speaker 2: see her on Monday. On Sunday morning, James Cartland shot himself.
Speaker 2: His death left his debt to his son, Barbara's father, Bertie.
Speaker 2: Polly and Bertie's home, Bobrooke, had been verbally given to
Speaker 2: them by James, but as the title deeds were not
Speaker 2: in their name, the bank said the house was to
Speaker 2: be surrendered to pay the overdue loan. The house was
Speaker 2: put up for sale, along with nearly all of the
Speaker 2: belongings in it. Poor I may be, but common I
Speaker 2: am not, Barbara's mother, Polly declared. While her husband and
Speaker 2: his mother were said to be incapacitated by the circumstances,
Speaker 2: Polly found a new home for the family to rent
Speaker 2: on their three hundred pounds a year income. Bertie, a
Speaker 2: former officer of the British Army, naturally did not work
Speaker 2: as would be completely unbefitting of a gentleman of the age,
Speaker 2: and so that money came from allowances from their respective families.
Speaker 2: For forty pounds a year, they moved into a country
Speaker 2: home in Worcestershire, fit with six bedrooms, a tennis court, stables,
Speaker 2: and four acres of overgrown gardens. That was where Barbara
Speaker 2: grew up, and those gardens were where she first invented
Speaker 2: new worlds. Quote. I never drive through Worcestershire in the
Speaker 2: spring without the memory of our garden like a pink
Speaker 2: and white fairyland, she would reflect as an adult. She
Speaker 2: recalls listening to the trees and hearing the fairies moving
Speaker 2: about inside, and she was sure that she saw wings
Speaker 2: among the flowers. Her first experience with literature was with
Speaker 2: the novels she could find in her father's study, mainly Dickens,
Speaker 2: and her mother then began to nurture Barbara's love of
Speaker 2: stories by reading her fantasy books. Upon her mother's death
Speaker 2: years later, Barbara would find amongst the piles of paper
Speaker 2: her mother had kept the very first short story she
Speaker 2: had ever written at five and a half years old.
Speaker 2: But sudden bankruptcy wouldn't be the only upheaval in young
Speaker 2: Barbara's life. When it became obvious in nineteen fourteen that
Speaker 2: the country was to go to war with Germany, Bertie
Speaker 2: was called up to serve. As he was stationed in
Speaker 2: different parts of England, the family moved around to stay
Speaker 2: with friends near him. In nineteen seventeen, Bertie was killed
Speaker 2: in action. Polly was now a widow and a single
Speaker 2: mother to three children, Barbara and her two younger brothers.
Speaker 2: Barbara recalls that her mother adopted a stricter sense of
Speaker 2: discipline during that time, but it was always clear that
Speaker 2: she did everything out of love. Polly had also been
Speaker 2: something of a surrogate mother to her husband, who needed
Speaker 2: motivation and guidance throughout his lia adult life, and she
Speaker 2: was determined that her own children would be self sufficient.
Speaker 2: Barbara would later reflect quote, Mummy lit a flame in
Speaker 2: all three of us that was to burn brighter year
Speaker 2: by year. She made us believe in ourselves and our capabilities.
Speaker 2: She made us see that anything was possible if we
Speaker 2: really wanted it and worked hard enough. Shortly after her
Speaker 2: father's death, Barbara turned eighteen and left school. During her
Speaker 2: school years, her love of storytelling only grew. She discovered
Speaker 2: the romance novels of ethel M. Dell, BERTA. Ruck, and
Speaker 2: Eleanor Glynn, who was notably quite the scandalous writer of
Speaker 2: her time. It was actually Dell's influence in particular that
Speaker 2: would have the greatest impact on Barbara's career. Barbara's biographer writes,
Speaker 2: Barbara really believed all heroes should be tall, silent men,
Speaker 2: seething with burning passions, but passions so controlled that one
Speaker 2: was not aware of them until they broke down under
Speaker 2: an overwhelming love. Her leading ladies, on the other hand,
Speaker 2: should be quote soft, sweet, easily frightened, yet longing to
Speaker 2: be dominated by a strong and masculine man. Barbara was
Speaker 2: a so called plain child, so much so that apparently
Speaker 2: other mothers pitied Polly, but by this time she had
Speaker 2: blossomed into something of a classic leading lady herself. Barbara
Speaker 2: received her first proposal this summer after school, on holiday
Speaker 2: with her family on the Isle of Wight. He was
Speaker 2: a colonel over forty years old with a red handlebar mustache.
Speaker 2: Barbara wanted absolutely nothing to do with him, rushing to
Speaker 2: her mother to ask for help. Polly told her daughter,
Speaker 2: you must learn to look after yourself. It's harsh advice,
Speaker 2: but falls in line with Polly's desay desire to instill
Speaker 2: self sufficiency and tenacity within her daughter. Still, when another
Speaker 2: elderly married this time man, tried to make advances on
Speaker 2: Barbara that same summer, he was met with Polly's fury.
Speaker 2: This clown, in turn asked out Polly instead. When asked
Speaker 2: if any of her suitors that summer attempted to kiss her,
Speaker 2: Barbara responded, certainly not. We were not mauled in those days.
Speaker 2: Our innocence protected us. I was quite determined that the
Speaker 2: only man who would ever be allowed to kiss me
Speaker 2: on the lips was the one I would marry. Barbara
Speaker 2: would have plenty more marriage candidates to consider when she
Speaker 2: moved to London with the family after that summer break.
Speaker 2: She had a small budget for clothes provided by her mother,
Speaker 2: and she began to experiment with fashionable makeup and hair
Speaker 2: of the time, all in service of her coming out
Speaker 2: in society, and Barbara was a hit. Courting in nineteen
Speaker 2: twenty's London mainly consisted of dinner and dancing, but it
Speaker 2: was improper for a man and woman to dine alone together,
Speaker 2: so the woman would have dinner at home while the
Speaker 2: man dined at his social club before picking up his
Speaker 2: date later. Once the dancing was done, a taxi would
Speaker 2: be called. The driver would stop for a coffee at
Speaker 2: the green painted stand at the corner of Hyde Park
Speaker 2: while the young couple sat in the back seat. This
Speaker 2: was all a dance of its own. The cab drivers
Speaker 2: would all sit together and chat and play cards while
Speaker 2: the couples in their back seats scored some convenient alone time.
Speaker 2: Barbara often sat in these back seats, remembering the quote
Speaker 2: delicious feeling of anticipation, but mind out of the gutter.
Speaker 2: Which she was anticipating was a potential proposal, or just
Speaker 2: to see if her date would attempt a kiss in
Speaker 2: the backseat of one of those cabs. Barbara did accept
Speaker 2: a proposal from a gentleman named Dick Usher, a young
Speaker 2: officer Polly. Her mother had advised her to wait a
Speaker 2: month to announce the engagement in the Times, and it
Speaker 2: was a good thing she did, because Barbara had a
Speaker 2: question for her mother, How does one have a baby?
Speaker 1: She asked.
Speaker 2: It had been nagging at her and it was never
Speaker 2: taught at the girls' schools she attended. Barbara had thought
Speaker 2: it had something to do with a man kissing a
Speaker 2: woman's neck, because one of the novels she read contained
Speaker 2: the line quote he kissed her neck passionately, and she
Speaker 2: knew what he meant. When Barbara's mother told her how
Speaker 2: things actually worked, Barbara was so horrified that she broke
Speaker 2: off the engagement. Barbara would go on to say that
Speaker 2: throughout her life she never enjoyed being touched or kissed
Speaker 2: unless it was by someone she really loved. Two nights
Speaker 2: after she broke the news to Dick, they ran into
Speaker 2: each other at a party, and, feeling sorry for him,
Speaker 2: Barbara agreed to talk. They took a taxi to the
Speaker 2: stall at Hyde Park, where Dick proceeded to take out
Speaker 2: a revolver and he declared, unless you marry me, I
Speaker 2: will shoot myself. This was, believe it or not, Barbara's
Speaker 2: second incident with a loaded gun in her young life,
Speaker 2: after another army officer had attempted to flirt with her
Speaker 2: by showing off his weapon and nearly shooting her after
Speaker 2: incorrectly believing the gun had no bullets left. And to
Speaker 2: be clear, I promise these are not innu windows. Barbara
Speaker 2: was able to talk Dick down far enough that he
Speaker 2: got tired and agreed to take Barbara home, where she
Speaker 2: rushed through the front door and up to her mother's bedroom.
Speaker 2: Dick later wrote a letter to Polly describing his agony.
Speaker 2: If only I weren't cursed with such a big, big love,
Speaker 2: it might be easier. But you know that I just
Speaker 2: worship Barbara with my whole heart and soul and body.
Speaker 2: That to lose her is worse than a million times.
Speaker 2: The torture of the damned life was certainly providing Barbara
Speaker 2: with plenty of material for her future career. In nineteen twenty,
Speaker 2: Barbara declared to her family one morning over breakfast that
Speaker 2: she was going to write a novel. They laughed, You'll
Speaker 2: never finish it, they said. She started right away. Once
Speaker 2: she had a few chapters completed, she showed them to
Speaker 2: her mother, Polly, who offered both criticism and compliments. Polly
Speaker 2: asked a writer friend over for lunch, where she in
Speaker 2: turn asked Barbara to read her draft out loud, A
Speaker 2: personal nightmare for many writers, especially a writer just starting out,
Speaker 2: but it was apparently a breeze for Barbara. It's very good,
Speaker 2: the writer told her. Finish it. Barbara spent three months
Speaker 2: doing just that. Where many writers also struggle to find
Speaker 2: their voice, Barbara had internalized her beloved romance novels and
Speaker 2: knew exactly what she wanted to say and how to
Speaker 2: say it. Their eyes met reads one of the closing
Speaker 2: lines of that first novel. Each was conscious of the
Speaker 2: flame of love and desire within the other explanations words
Speaker 2: were unnecessary. Barbara called the book Jigsaw and dedicated it
Speaker 2: to Polly. It cost seven shillings and sixpence and it
Speaker 2: became a minor sensation almost immediately. Jigsaw tells the story
Speaker 2: of the innocent but enchanting Mona, who ends up in
Speaker 2: a love triangle with a sensible, strong willed duke and
Speaker 2: a dark and handsome stranger. Mona ultimately chooses the duke
Speaker 2: as goodness prevails over temptation. This is a good moment
Speaker 2: to talk about the tropes of Barbara's writing. In her
Speaker 2: own words quote, there are two means. One is the impatient,
Speaker 2: rather aggressive crusader, sometimes overpowersing with a tendency to fight
Speaker 2: violently for what I believe is right. And the other
Speaker 2: image I have of myself is sweet, soft, gentle, understanding,
Speaker 2: perceptive and very feminine. Longing to be protected by a
Speaker 2: strong masculine man. It is a kind of idealistic, mental
Speaker 2: and spiritual virginity which I have given my heroines, and
Speaker 2: which I have always had myself. End quote Mona Or
Speaker 2: Barbara has an angel and a devil, so to speak
Speaker 2: on her shoulder in Jigsaw, the strong but silent Duke
Speaker 2: Peter and the exciting but dangerous Alec. It brings to
Speaker 2: mind the Madonna horror complex, which sees women as either
Speaker 2: saintly or degenerate, never in between. Barbara's heroines are always
Speaker 2: pure madonnas who seek stability with Peters, and they must
Speaker 2: reject their inner whore who is driving them toward an
Speaker 2: alec or. Sometimes the heroine is so saintly that the
Speaker 2: leading man will overcome his degeneracy in order to devote
Speaker 2: himself to her. This episode isn't a book report, but
Speaker 2: these themes, especially with regards to the way she frames
Speaker 2: and portrays women and female desire, I think is important
Speaker 2: when we think about how much Barbara has stated that
Speaker 2: her heroines represent herself and her morals. Back to Jigsaw's success.
Speaker 2: Now a minor celebrity, Barbara was becoming even more popular
Speaker 2: in the London social scene than she had already been.
Speaker 2: Her dance card was always full, and she was always
Speaker 2: present in the gossip columns of magazines like Tattler and
Speaker 2: other newspapers. At the same time, Barbara had already been
Speaker 2: secretly writing four gossip columns, gathering tips from her society circles,
Speaker 2: and she would continue that secret career four years. Can
Speaker 2: someone say, Lady Whistle down? These social circles contained various
Speaker 2: lords and ladies, earls and countesses, and a young Winston Churchill,
Speaker 2: who Barbara struck up a friendship with. Barbara would get
Speaker 2: further inspiration for her leading men when she met the
Speaker 2: Duke of Sutherland. He, like most men Barbara encountered, also
Speaker 2: fell in love with her, but there was the issue
Speaker 2: of his already having a wife, and his advances were rejected.
Speaker 2: When Barbara did decide to marry, it was proposal number fifty.
Speaker 2: Alexander George mccorkadale was not one of Barbara's brooding dukes. Rather,
Speaker 2: he was a British Army officer from Scotland and heir
Speaker 2: to a printing fortune. He was, however, said to have
Speaker 2: looked the part of a Cartland hero, dark haired, strong,
Speaker 2: and yes, of course brooding. The couple were married on
Speaker 2: April twenty third, nineteen twenty seven. For the wedding, Barbara
Speaker 2: wore the first tool dress that society had seen since
Speaker 2: World War One, made by the English designer extraordinary Norman Hartnell,
Speaker 2: but designed by Barbara herself. Years later, Barbara would write
Speaker 2: an article on honeymoons for The Evening News, and although
Speaker 2: she describes a fictitious young bride in the article, there
Speaker 2: was truth to her own experience quote. She the fictional
Speaker 2: bride dreamed of a strong, silent cave man, a man
Speaker 2: of deeds but a few words, a man who, underneath
Speaker 2: a deep reserve, was passionate, commanding, conquering. Finally, she thought
Speaker 2: she had found that in her husband. She mistook inertia
Speaker 2: for reserve, lack of interest for silent strength, and inexperience
Speaker 2: for hidden passion. She was miserably disappointed. Barbara's marriage would
Speaker 2: last only five years, but it brought the couple a baby, girl,
Speaker 2: Rain mccorkidale. In September of nineteen twenty nine, Barbara's mother
Speaker 2: in law implored her to give up her career and
Speaker 2: stop writing her quote immoral novels, but she had no
Speaker 2: intention of doing that. Not only did Barbara continue her
Speaker 2: literary career as a mother, but she took on new ventures,
Speaker 2: including advocating for better public health awareness. After her daughter
Speaker 2: reign inexplicably fell nearly fatally ill, and Barbara also became
Speaker 2: interested in aviation advancements. Particularly, she was interested in recent
Speaker 2: innovations in gliding, and she worked with two inventors to
Speaker 2: deliver the first air mail cross country via glider. When
Speaker 2: the project was complete, it was of course christened the
Speaker 2: Barbara Cartland Glider. Her experiment proved to be essential to
Speaker 2: further designs and had an impact on the air mail
Speaker 2: system during the Second World War, so much so that
Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty four she was awarded the US Bishop
Speaker 2: Wrights Air Industry Award. While Barbara continued to explore her
Speaker 2: new career ventures and interests, she faced difficulties at home.
Speaker 2: In the early nineteen thirties, while her husband was away,
Speaker 2: Barbara came across a series of love letters in another
Speaker 2: woman's handwriting. Instead of confronting her husband directly the next morning,
Speaker 2: she took her findings straight to his parents. Upon returning
Speaker 2: from his trip, her husband went straight to their home
Speaker 2: and refused all requests to see or speak to his wife.
Speaker 2: The social circles Barbara had once been the darling of
Speaker 2: were now beginning to shun her as a divorcee. The
Speaker 2: Matrimonial Causes Act that allowed for either spouse to petition
Speaker 2: for divorce on the basis of adultery had only just
Speaker 2: been adopted in nineteen twenty three, a decade earlier, and
Speaker 2: the upper echelons of British society were never the ones
Speaker 2: to quickly adopt progressive mindsets. The Countess of Pembroke forbade
Speaker 2: Barbara from helping her arrange a charity ball, which was
Speaker 2: ironic considering the Earl of Pembroke had just run away
Speaker 2: with another woman and was at the moment begging his
Speaker 2: wife for a divorce. It should also be noted though
Speaker 2: Barbara may not have been entirely faithful during the marriage either.
Speaker 2: This claim must be taken with a grain of salt,
Speaker 2: as it was reported in The Daily Mail posthumously as
Speaker 2: a conversation that happened off the record, but she allegedly
Speaker 2: told a journalist that she had a number of lovers
Speaker 2: who could even potentially have been Rayne's real father, including
Speaker 2: her prototypical hero, the Duke of Sutherland and Prince George,
Speaker 2: the Duke of Kent. Barbara would go on to have
Speaker 2: two more children, both sons, with a second husband, her
Speaker 2: ex's cousin, Hugh mccorkydale. They had been friends and he
Speaker 2: became something of a rock for Barbara during the years
Speaker 2: following the divorce. Darling, I am getting older, reads a
Speaker 2: letter from Hugh to his future wife. Yet you, the
Speaker 2: loveliest creature God ever made, loves me and wants to
Speaker 2: marry me. It's so wonderful, I can't believe it's true.
Speaker 2: The couple would have twenty seven years together before Hugh
Speaker 2: passed due to a heart condition, but he would be
Speaker 2: the great love of Barbara's life. The couple were married
Speaker 2: in nineteen thirty six, by which point Barbara had begun
Speaker 2: to publish around two novels a year. Throughout all of
Speaker 2: those events I discussed, and all of the events I
Speaker 2: will discuss, it is safe to say that Barbara was
Speaker 2: writing through them. Barbara would continue to publish throughout the
Speaker 2: nineteen forties, but once again she was forced to live
Speaker 2: through a World war, and once again she would lose
Speaker 2: family in the fighting. This time, both of her brothers
Speaker 2: died in Dunkirk. As daily life in London got more perilous,
Speaker 2: Barbara and her children left for Canada at the invitation
Speaker 2: of a friend, but Barbara soon decided she had made
Speaker 2: a mistake and that she and her family should return
Speaker 2: to England, where her husband, Hugh had remained. She wanted
Speaker 2: to help however they could. She would become the chief
Speaker 2: Lady Welfare Officer to the Services in Bedfordshire, which often
Speaker 2: meant improving the lives of local women. Some of her
Speaker 2: aid came in the form of getting the service women
Speaker 2: better material for their clothing, helping them feel more beautiful,
Speaker 2: and some of it came in the form of helping
Speaker 2: local pregnant women or women going through divorces. As the
Speaker 2: only female welfare officer, she was in a unique position
Speaker 2: to understand problems that were often overlooked by men. By
Speaker 2: all accounts, she was excellent at her job, but it
Speaker 2: seems like an odd fit when you consider that Barbara
Speaker 2: publicly stated numerous times that she did not care for
Speaker 2: women in general and had very few women friends in
Speaker 2: her life. As the war ended, Barbara became even more
Speaker 2: devoted to her writing, finishing her thirtieth novel and resuming
Speaker 2: her journalistic career. In nineteen forty eight, inspired by her
Speaker 2: daughter's first extravagant wedding, Barbara responded to a request from
Speaker 2: a woman's magazine that implored her to write a historical romance.
Speaker 2: That book would be Hazard of Hearts, and it would
Speaker 2: change the course of Barbara's career. Until that point, her
Speaker 2: stories had been modern, but the more she researched, the
Speaker 2: more she discovered her love of history. It also didn't
Speaker 2: hurt that one of Barbara's primary values, a woman being
Speaker 2: a virgin, had been even more valuable in the days
Speaker 2: of yore. In nineteen fifty, Barbara and her family moved
Speaker 2: to Camfield Place, a country estate built by Edmund Potter,
Speaker 2: grandfather of Beatrix Potter. Its gardens actually gave birth to
Speaker 2: Peter Rabbit, just as the gardens of Barbara's childhood home
Speaker 2: had been the original source of her imagination. That same year,
Speaker 2: Barbara faced a plagiarism allegation from one of her original inspirations,
Speaker 2: Georgette Hayre Hayer, alleged that Hazard of Hearts replicated character
Speaker 2: names and plot points from a number of her novels,
Speaker 2: but the case never went to court, so we'll never
Speaker 2: know exactly what went down. Over the next decade, Barbara
Speaker 2: would continue to produce an astonishing number of novels, and
Speaker 2: by the sixties there was a devoted market of British
Speaker 2: women eagerly awaiting every publication. By the early seventies, Barbara
Speaker 2: had sold fifty million books. As the decade went on,
Speaker 2: she would produce on average two books a month. Her
Speaker 2: afternoons consisted of dictating her writing to her secretaries. She
Speaker 2: could average seven thousand words in accession, which usually lasted
Speaker 2: a few hours. Her secretaries were not permitted to sneeze
Speaker 2: or cough while Barbara dictated from the couch with a
Speaker 2: hot water bottle at her feet and her dog cuddled
Speaker 2: next to her. This would be her routine for the
Speaker 2: rest of her life. In nineteen seventy six, Barbara's daughter
Speaker 2: Rain married Earl Spencer, the father of Diana. However, when
Speaker 2: Rain fell for the Earl, she was already married with
Speaker 2: four children. It's like one of your books, she apparently
Speaker 2: told her mother. I am wildly in love and there's
Speaker 2: nothing anyone can do about it. Sixteen year old Diana
Speaker 2: had grown up a fan of her new step grandmother's novels,
Speaker 2: and one of the princess's biographies claims that Cartland used
Speaker 2: to send her advanced copies even before they became family.
Speaker 2: There's a really great picture of a young Diana reading
Speaker 2: one Cartland novel while two other books sit on her lap,
Speaker 2: and we can only imagine she's dreaming about her own
Speaker 2: romance one day with a duke, or an earl, or
Speaker 2: even a prince. Rain, as Princess Diana scholars might know,
Speaker 2: was hated by Diana and often referred to by Diana
Speaker 2: and her siblings as Acid Rain. Their relationship was incredibly
Speaker 2: strained for most of her life, although they would mend
Speaker 2: things shortly before Diana's tragic death. Even before Diana became family,
Speaker 2: Barbara had another royal connection, a long intimate friendship with
Speaker 2: Lord Mountbatten of Burma, Prince Philip's uncle, who even helped
Speaker 2: her write one of her romances, Love at the Helm,
Speaker 2: by providing her information from his naval background. Barbara did
Speaker 2: not attend the eventual royal wedding between Diana and Charles,
Speaker 2: but she insists it was not a snub that she
Speaker 2: instead gave up her seat so that her son Ian
Speaker 2: could go instead. Still, Barbara would only gain more tabloid
Speaker 2: attention from her association with the princess at a time
Speaker 2: when her books were already becoming more popular than ever.
Speaker 2: After all, what was Diana but a Cartland character come
Speaker 2: to life, a young woman swept away by a romance
Speaker 2: with a prince. The nineteen sixties saw censorships being lifted
Speaker 2: that allowed for racier material to now be published, but
Speaker 2: a boom of pornography meant that for many the pendulum
Speaker 2: of taste would swing the other way, and publishers saw
Speaker 2: a major market for Barbara's virginal heroines. The debate between
Speaker 2: erotica and romance was best exemplified in a nineteen eighty
Speaker 2: seven TV appearance from Barbara, where she appeared alongside the
Speaker 2: novelist Jackie Collins, whose hit book The stud exemplified for Cartland.
Speaker 2: Everything wrong with romance? It's evil, really, Barbara began, what
Speaker 2: Collins asks, the book books you write quite frankly. Collins
Speaker 2: replies that she doesn't believe there's anything evil about writing
Speaker 2: about sex, something so natural. But Barbara is having none
Speaker 2: of it. Don't you think it has helped perverts? She asks,
Speaker 2: and worries about the book's influence on children. The YouTuber
Speaker 2: Contrapoint in her video on Twilight actually discusses that debate,
Speaker 2: describing it as quote surreal to watch a quote eighty
Speaker 2: year old woman in clown drag lecture an audience about
Speaker 2: sexual purity. Since this is an audio medium, I leave
Speaker 2: it to you to watch the debate for yourself and
Speaker 2: decide if that description is apt. Barbara's crusades in her
Speaker 2: older age didn't just stop at bashing what she saw
Speaker 2: as immoral erotica. She campaigned for purity for women, promoting
Speaker 2: religious morality, as well as writing an article where she
Speaker 2: expressed her worries that books published by gay man's press
Speaker 2: could quote easily pollute children's minds. In response, The Gay
Speaker 2: Times wrote, quote, given the garbage that Cartland turns out,
Speaker 2: I would think that GMP are quite happy to be
Speaker 2: in a different league, youch There's a quote from Cartland
Speaker 2: that's in Robin's biography that reveals a sad truth. Cartland
Speaker 2: says marriage is the best investment that was ever invented
Speaker 2: for women. It's a security against their old age, against
Speaker 2: them being deserted after losing their looks and becoming unattractive.
Speaker 2: To throw away all that when you are young and
Speaker 2: foolish is very reckless end quote. Even as the Sexual
Speaker 2: Revolution and the Equal Rights Amendment began to gain traction,
Speaker 2: Barbara held onto the security of tradition and shamed the
Speaker 2: women who did not. It's incredible in a way that
Speaker 2: a woman who would sell millions of copies of books
Speaker 2: with a sizeable income would still see the greatest security
Speaker 2: in her old age as still being wanted or tolerated
Speaker 2: by a man. While the world was progressing in a
Speaker 2: way that frankly horrified her, Barbara could always write about
Speaker 2: a past she believed was exemplary. In the nineties, Barbara
Speaker 2: published her five hundred and sixty fifth book, breaking the
Speaker 2: record for the greatest number of books ever written by
Speaker 2: British authors. By then, in her nineties, Barbara was still
Speaker 2: churning out novels, and in nineteen ninety one, apparently after
Speaker 2: years of complaining that she never received even a quote
Speaker 2: measly mbe, she was made a Dame for her contribution
Speaker 2: to literature and for her work in the community and
Speaker 2: with charities. In two thousand, at the age of ninety eight,
Speaker 2: Barbara died in her sleep, in her home. Her official
Speaker 2: website states that over her career, she wrote seven hundred
Speaker 2: and twenty three novels. She also left behind a series
Speaker 2: of one hundred and sixty unpublished novels, which were later
Speaker 2: published by her son Ian as the Barbara Cartland Pink Collection.
Speaker 2: Barbara believed in reincarnation and was not afraid of death. Quote.
Speaker 2: I've had a wonderful life with ups and downs, tears
Speaker 2: and laughter, but so much kindness, so much happiness, so
Speaker 2: much love, she told her biographer. How could all that
Speaker 2: be lost? How could the effort, the striving, the sacrifices
Speaker 2: be wasted. I believe my faith will make it all
Speaker 2: come true tomorrow. It's a very romantic thought. That's the
Speaker 2: story of the particular British icon Dame Barbara Cartland. But
Speaker 2: keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear one
Speaker 2: important story I believe about one of her most important hobbies.
Speaker 2: I could not end this episode without telling you about
Speaker 2: Album of Love Songs, Barbara's record with the Royal Philharmonic.
Speaker 2: Her singing is, let's say, interesting, but the real gems
Speaker 2: of the album are the spoken word tracks, where she
Speaker 2: waxes poetic about all things love. It is really the
Speaker 2: kind of thing you just have to go listen to
Speaker 2: on your own. I could give you my thoughts or
Speaker 2: I could read you. A YouTube comment from noted critic
Speaker 2: Lizzie Allen twenty two eighty four quote, OMG, it doesn't
Speaker 2: get any camper than this. Could not have said it
Speaker 2: better myself. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 2: Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted
Speaker 2: by me Danish Forts, with additional writing and researching by
Speaker 2: Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zewick, Courtney Sender, Julia Milani, and Armand Cassam.
Speaker 2: The show is edited and produced by Noemy Griffin and
Speaker 2: rima Il Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive
Speaker 2: producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. Four more
Speaker 2: podcasts from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 2: wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Ossssssssssssssss