Barbara Cartland celebrated in Hertfordshire exhibition

BBC News

15-02-2025

A century after her first novel was published, an exhibition is set to show a "whole other side" to the colourful character of Dame Barbara Cartland. The Art of Romance opens today at Hertford Museum to mark the 100 years of Jig-Saw - the first of her 723 novels. So, who was Dame Barbara and what else is she known for beyond her extravagant outfits and love stories?
Heroines and peril
Dame Barbara was born in Birmingham in 1901 and moved to London in 1919 after losing her father in World War One. She began to write gossip columns for newspapers and penned her first romance novel, which was published a few years later in 1925.It would be the first of many, with titles such as A Gamble with Hearts, The Cave of Love and A Knight in Paris.On average, she wrote a novel each fortnight, dictating the stories to her secretary."She was often asked 'How do you keep churning them out and making them different?' But she travelled a lot and would set them in different countries and historical periods," said Sara Taylor, the museum's curator."There were heroes, often a marquis or duke, and young heroines, who were 18-year-old virgins. There's a bit of peril thrown in and things come right at the end."Dame Barbara, who later lived in Hertfordshire until her death in 2000, became closely connected to the aristocracy herself when her daughter Raine married Earl Spencer - the father of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Sex and controversy
By the 1970s some questioned why Dame Barbara's chaste heroines never had sexual experiences.Ms Taylor added: "A lot of journalists were asking 'Why does nobody ever go to bed with anybody if they're not married?' "But it didn't matter that that wasn't the fashion. She stuck with it and romance came back in style."The issue was famously addressed in a BBC TV interview with Terry Wogan, as Dame Barbara appeared alongside bestselling author of erotic fiction, Jackie Collins.Dame Barbara described Collins' books as "terrible, disgusting" and asked: "Don't you think it has helped the perverts?"Collins, unphased, replied: "There's room for both of us: for your books, which I'm sure are terrific, and for mine which are a little more racy."Another author, Georgette Heyer, also reportedly wrote to Dame Barbara in the 1950s and accused her of plagiarising elements of her historical novels, but the dame's son, Ian McCorquodale, dismissed the allegations at the time.
Aviation breakthrough
Dame Barbara was someone who loved to take on a challenge, according to her granddaughter Tara Parker."Once the men at a dinner party said they were better drivers than the women, and she wasn't having that. So she set up a group of women to race MG cars," she said.She was also an accomplished pilot, and at the age of 30 she looked for a way to make gliders travel further.In 1931, along with two RAF officers she invented the first aeroplane-towed glider and made a record-breaking flight of 200 miles.
Campaigner for change
Dame Barbara's determination also extended to tackling injustice and helping others."She was an incredibly hard worker - she worked up to 16 hrs a day - but it wasn't always on the romantic books," added Ms Parker."She was a great campaigner for people less fortunate."During World War Two, Dame Barbara took a mobile library around to army officers and put together a wedding dress lending facility.Ms Parker said: "She realised because of rationing, women couldn't get married in white as there wasn't enough cloth. "She bought some second-hand dresses and by the end she was lending out about 1,000 items."
"She's often highlighted as somebody who wasn't keen on the emancipation of women - But a lot of what she did was actually for the benefit of women," said Ms Taylor."She was particularly interested in women's health, and she campaigned for better living conditions and nutrition for the elderly."Dame Barbara later became a Hertfordshire county councillor and fought for a change in the law to enable children of Romany gypsies to attend school."Apparently she was really horrified to discover that traveller children weren't allowed to attend local schools because they didn't have a fixed address," her granddaughter said."So she campaigned for traveller sites, and there is one in Hertfordshire called Barbaraville."
'A massive Barbara fan'
Ms Taylor said she knew very little about Barbara Cartland before putting the exhibition together, which includes artwork by Francis Marshall and some of the dame's flamboyant clothes."I just thought of the hats and pink dresses, the Pekingese and the novels," she added."I had no idea that she'd campaigned for all these different things."So, I hope that by visiting the exhibition, people can see a different side to Barbara, that there was a serious side to her – because she's perceived as eccentric."She continued: "You'll come out a massive Barbara fan at the end of it, because I don't see how you couldn't. I think you'll still have a ball - you might not think that you will, but you will."Barbara Cartland: The Art of Romance runs from 15 February to 1 June at Hertford Museum.
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