A Woman of Substance

A Woman of Substance
Barbara Taylor Bradford

The unputdownable multi-million copy bestseller charting the rags to riches story of Emma Harte.In 1905 a young kitchen maid leaves Fairley Hall. Emma Harte is sixteen, single and pregnant.By 1968 she is one of the richest women in the world, ruler of a business empire stretching from Yorkshire to the glittering cities of America and the rugged vastness of Australia. But what is the price she has paid?A Woman of Substance is as impossible to put down as it is to forget. This multi-million copy bestseller is truly a novel of our times.

BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD

A Woman of Substance

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_fb9a684d-ec82-5f1e-9892-7c934b453015)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by Grafton 1981

Copyright © Barbara Taylor Bradford 1979

Barbara Taylor Bradford asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780007321421

Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007346943

Version: 2018-08-22

PRAISE (#ulink_ec8d33fe-7996-50cf-a1cc-53464cd1c1ae)

To discover more about Barbara’s books and sign up for her newsletter, visit www.barbarataylorbradford.co.uk (http://www.barbarataylorbradford.co.uk)

‘Memorable and moving … a sure-fire winner’

Express

‘Queen of the genre’

Sunday Times

‘Few novelists are as consummate as Barbara Taylor Bradford at keeping the reader turning the page. She is one of the best at spinning yarns’

Guardian

‘The storyteller of substance’

The Times

‘A sweeping saga full of passion and intrigue’

Hello!

DEDICATION (#ulink_2ad99d3b-1269-528d-8107-9618de70d688)

For Bob and my parents – who know the reason why

EPIGRAPH (#ulink_0bcd6a19-031f-550e-a431-3a46dd802bd3)

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a man may live long, yet get little from life.

Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.

– MONTAIGNE, Essays

I have the heart of a man, not of a woman, and I am not afraid of anything …

– ELIZABETH I, Queen of England

CONTENTS

COVER (#u61bca4b3-360f-5dc0-a373-5c18e8ad6a18)

TITLE PAGE (#ufa7d06c6-63a8-585a-9f17-bb14f2076fe9)

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_2e85388d-fd17-5c5a-a935-c4774ca0b240)

PRAISE (#ulink_0f2d1f8c-d8fd-51d5-ad95-bc939ef9927f)

DEDICATION (#ulink_a1fa3be9-fba6-58f5-ae2b-0cbe524ccdac)

EPIGRAPH (#ulink_bbc52f16-67ff-5c97-9f24-d21d529c8050)

FOREWORD (#ulink_ec533bec-5d16-5bb2-ac2d-2fe2356c121b)

PART ONE The Valley 1968 (#ulink_e2e7fa37-86c3-5e8b-92bb-9d80912491cd)

ONE (#ulink_a044b609-7f25-52dd-a1f4-1ae5ef2a2eb7)

TWO (#ulink_1334dd88-8764-5166-8173-393088604f64)

THREE (#ulink_2c573fb7-7935-5657-a0f9-d94c10a22fb5)

FOUR (#ulink_6758b636-e7c5-54cc-9d54-812113ca5550)