Items that reflect ‘elegance and artistry' of Barbara Taylor Bradford go on sale
Items that reflect the 'elegance, intellect and artistry' of author Barbara Taylor Bradford are to be auctioned, months after her death.
The British-American writer found fame with her debut novel A Woman Of Substance, and went on to write 40 novels, becoming a renowned international bestselling author, often described as 'the grand dame of blockbusters'.
The author died aged 91 on November 24 last year following a short illness.
Doyle Auctioneers and Appraisers will hold The Collection of Barbara Taylor Bradford in May, putting memorabilia from the international bestselling author under the hammer.
The items on offer will include a portrait of her dogs, Beaji and Chammi, by artist Christine Herman Merrill, estimated to fetch 1,000 to 1,500 dollars (£755 – £1,133), and her George III writing desk, valued between 800 and 1,200 dollars (£604 – £907).
Bradford's signed books by former Conservative prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major are also on offer, with Baroness Thatcher's The Downing Street Years valued between 500 and 800 dollars (£378 – £604), and Sir John's autobiography valued between 300 and 500 dollars (£227 – £378).
Peter Costanzo, Doyle's executive director of books, autographs and photographs, said: 'This collection reflects a life of elegance, intellect, and artistry, offering a glimpse into the world of one of the most successful writers of our time.
'Author memorabilia has consistently attracted significant interest at auctions, reflecting a deep appreciation for literary figures and their works. The provenance and historical significance of such items often drive their desirability and value in the auction market.'
Her books have sold more than 91 million copies to date, and have been published in more than 40 languages and in 90 countries – with her most recent novel, The Wonder Of It All, published in November 2023, roughly a year before she died.
Bidders will now have the chance to take home some of her most beloved pieces from her estate including paintings from her Manhattan apartment, first editions and three pieces of jewellery such as her Verdura Swan brooch which is estimated at 10,000-15,000 US dollars (£7,500-£11,200).
The brooch was commissioned and gifted to Bradford by her husband of 55 years, the late film and television producer Robert Bradford, after she published The Cavendon Woman in celebration of the Cavendon series.
Together the pair amassed a collection of art, jewellery, first edition books, porcelain with a select number of pieces being offered for auction for the first time including her IBM Wheelwriter typewriter which is estimated at 2,000-3,000 US dollars (£1,500-£2,200).
Randy Jones, co-trustee of The Barbara Taylor Bradford Trust, said: 'The pieces in this auction offer a rare glimpse into Barbara Taylor Bradford's remarkable life—one defined by elegance, ambition, and an unyielding dedication to storytelling.
'Each item reflects not only her impeccable taste but also the extraordinary journey she shared with her beloved husband, Bob.
'This collection is a tribute to her enduring legacy, inviting admirers and collectors alike to own a part of her world.'
The items will tour Doyle's galleries in Palm Beach and Beverly Hills before being displayed for public exhibition at Doyle New York on May 3 from 12pm-5pm.
A live auction will be held there on May 7 and will also be available for online bidding and via telephone.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Sydney Sweeney Becomes the Ultimate Pageant Girl on the Summer 2025 Cover of W Magazine
Sara Moonves continues to demonstrate that she is a great fit, having been installed as W Magazine editor-in-chief. After all, since taking up the mantle as the title's figurehead in 2019, Moonves has welcomed a whole plethora of A-list talent from the world of fashion, entertainment, and beyond as cover stars. Throughout 2025 alone, W has seen everyone from Zendaya and Charli XCX to Chappell Roan and HoYeon Jung. Up next on the cover of W Magazine is Sydney Sweeney. Carlijn Jacobs was called upon to profile the American actress for the occasion, with Allia Alliata di Montereale put in charge of styling. In the crisp cover shot, Sweeney sports a bouffant hairstyle and becomes the ultimate pageant girl, adorned with a sash and dressed in a Miu Miu dress and De Beers earrings. 'I like it. Gives me old school W Magazine vibes,' instantly approved kokobombon. 'Yes to this throwback layout! No shot-on-iPhone vibes. No awkward cropping,' Lucien112 appreciated. 'I absolutely love everything about this cover. The cover is giving 90s W vibes, especially, the styling. The styling is fun with a touch of retro,' favored forum member MModa. Sharing the same level of enthusiasm was vogue28. 'I love it, and even more because the cover itself resembles the glory days of W Magazine. The magazine used to excel at this type of zero-fuss cover photography, shot by the likes of Michael Thompson and Craig McDean. Everything is working here – from the composition of the shot to the strong sense of retro,' he voiced. 'I love this. Sydney carries those retro looks incredibly well, and the use of color/negative space makes this standout compared to some of the barely-lit nonsense we've been seeing from other magazines,' noted an equally as impressed Drusilla. See more of Sydney Sweeney from the W Magazine Summer 2025 cover shoot and join the conversation, here. The post Sydney Sweeney Becomes the Ultimate Pageant Girl on the Summer 2025 Cover of W Magazine appeared first on theFashionSpot.


Buzz Feed
an hour ago
- Buzz Feed
Brad Pitt Reveals "F1" Film Was His Dream Experience
Motorsport fans are about to get a high-octane dose of cinema with F1 — the upcoming highly-anticipated film that's already being hailed as one of the most ambitious racing movies ever made. Directed by Top Gun: Maverick's Joseph Kosinski, F1 stars Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a retired Formula 1 driver who returns to the sport to race for a fictional team called APXGP (pronounced 'apex'). He's joined by British actor Damson Idris, who plays rookie teammate Joshua Pearce. And while the team and characters may be fictional, almost everything else about the film is very, very real. While kicking off the press tour in Mexico City, Pitt called the project 'a dream come true', revealing that he'd been trying to make a racing film for decades. 'For me, it was just a no-brainer,' he said. 'When Joe had this audacious plan to invent us in the racing season, to put us actually in the cars, it was just a dream come true.' Kosinski's vision was clear from the beginning: to make the most immersive and realistic racing film ever made. That meant no faking it — Pitt and Idris had to actually learn how to drive. 'We started this training and we ended up getting to drive for basically two years in the making of this,' Pitt explained. 'By the end of it, Damps and I — I say we were quite tasty… as drivers.' That realism extended beyond just learning how to drive. Pitt and the production team — with major help from seven-time world champion and executive producer Lewis Hamilton — gained access to the inner workings of F1, even sitting in on drivers' meetings to ensure authenticity. Pitt said it was important to earn the respect of the sport and its athletes. 'We had to go in and just try to earn their trust, let them know how much we respect the sport, how much we want to get it right, and how much we want to include them,' he shared. The cars themselves posed another challenge. Pitt described the Formula 1 steering wheel as 'extreme', filled with too many buttons to count. 'The idea of being in the car and dealing with these forces, G-forces, the physics of it all, is just something you cannot fake,' he said. 'It is incredible what these guys can do.' He added that the precision and speed required from F1 drivers was 'staggering', especially considering how tightly packed the grid is during races. 'The idea that these guys can go around a four-mile track and all be within one second of each other — it's awesome,' Pitt said. 'It's a religion for me. The downforce, the way these cars stick — there's nothing I can compare it to.' A huge part of the film's authenticity comes from Hamilton's input — both creatively and technically. 'We would have meetings with him — some 12-hour meetings — as we developed the story and the script,' Pitt said. 'A lot of him is in the film, certainly in the way the story ends. Even in post, he would tell us things like, 'You're in the wrong gear at Turn 6', or, 'Make sure you add the reverb when you go down the straight'. His knowledge is unfathomable.' F1 hits Australian cinemas on June 26, 2025 and judging by the scale, the access, and the passion behind it, it's set to become a defining moment in motorsport cinema.


San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Sasha Velour's ‘Big Reveal' redraws the boundaries of drag and theater
Other performers might dread glitches during shows. Sasha Velour makes them her co-stars. Her 'The Big Reveal Live Show!' offers no straightforward lip sync. Phone rings, TV static and vertical colored bars, smashed dishes, recording skips, computer viruses and flickering lights constantly interrupt her drag numbers, video art, autobiographical anecdotes and mini lectures on drag history and theory. But if these on-purpose mistakes rip the fabric of the mostly solo show, which opened Wednesday, June 4, at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the 'RuPaul's Drag Race' champion, author and Berkeley native widens them into wormholes and crawls inside to do battle with them. As she tries to claw back control of her bit, she might wind up on the floor in tears, but she's the winner all the same. It's partly a clown show: the garish makeup, the padded body parts, the nightmarish facial expressions, the wordless physical theater fight against absurdist forces too large to understand. But in all those gaffes, larger ideas are also at work. Imperfection is key to understanding drag and camp more generally, Velour says at one point. The art form doesn't work if you don't have self-awareness — if you don't understand your flaws but 'press on' anyway. (The implied corollary: Someone like Trump couldn't do camp even if he wanted to.) In a tough time for theater locally and nationwide, with companies scaling back or closing as funding sources dwindle, 'The Big Reveal Live Show!' suggests that institutional theater programming more drag might be one way forward. Audience members certainly showed up on Wednesday, some even glammed up in drag as opposed to the standard Berkeley Rep audience uniform of earth tones and sensible shoes. And Velour's show itself is more daring, artistic and intellectual than a lot of straight plays. Some of her patter — 'After so many years of backlash,' 'Drag serves as a mirror,' 'We are here, and we are not going away' — is boilerplate; the points might be more effectively made without didacticism. But other bits of monologue evince the scholarly yet frisky understanding of drag that undergirds her book, also called 'The Big Reveal,' with the subtitle 'An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag.' 'Queerness isn't shocking or groundbreaking at all,' she says in the show. 'It's normal. It's boring.' Cultures throughout history have had some kind of drag performance, she points out — even the American military in World War II. It only becomes threatening, she says, when it's no longer performed by straight men. Her costumes — by Diego Montoya Studio, Pierretta Viktori, Jazzmint Dash, Gloria Swansong and Casey Caldwell — are celestial wonders. One skirt hem resembles the orbit of the sometime-planet Pluto, both elliptical and noncoplanar, forming part of an outfit that looks like a bottle of pink Champagne frozen right in the moment of exploding. Another piece blurs the boundary between human and furniture. In one heart-stopping moment, she lines herself up with an outline of a human form projected on a large screen behind her. Without any perceptible change in lighting, she seems to change color, blazing in the gold of a desert sunset. Graffiti gets written on her, and ropes wrap around her; body parts metamorphose and enlarge. Your eyes search for signs as to what's projected and what's tangible. She dissolves in flames. By the end, you half expect her to be able to step through the screen and get swallowed whole, the wormholes covering their tracks like magic. As Velour finds the deviant in the familiar — talk shows, Disney princesses having animal friends, audio montages of iconic phone calls in film, the pixelated desktop of 1990s-era Windows — she makes the case that drag is available to everyone, no matter how weird or normie you are. That thing that tickles you? That you find yourself returning to again and again? Drag is a way you can talk about it, and it belongs on every stage and in every sitting room in America.