Those who are familiar with Barbara Cartland will enjoy watching the three interviews with the Queen of Romance on Youtube. As one of them introduces her, she presents herself in each one of them, “gift wrapped”, as she is all clad in pink with loads of jewellery and make up. She is Barbara Cartland who has written over 600 books, all about love and romance. Her son Ian Cartland tells us she would sit overlooking the greens of her sprawling estate and dictate. The secretary would sit behind for if she sat in front she would be distracting. A tape recorder would be recording even as the secretary would be taking notes so that not even a single word is missed. And once, in one single year, she wrote as many as 24 books and before she became a very widely read author, her publishers despaired at her speed.
More tips for writers: Cartland says she writes short paragraphs with lots of conversation for that is all the attention span of people and she says there is no muse, writing is all about discipline. Her son Ian says, “She wrote in the mornings, was with us in the afternoons and spent time with my dad in the evenings…and her favourite line was, if you want something done, ask a busy person…” A busy person always has the time.
Hearing her one is almost able to crack the secret of her success…she is very clear. For example she says, “When a man is in love with you, whatever he is like, he is very attractive. He has an excitement of his own because he is in love with you…you can’t explain it…really a hero can be anybody. They don’t have to be so good looking. But I would rather be good looking myself and not have a man so good looking…that is always a problem.”
All through the talks you find she takes her life with uncanny zest. She had a chef whom she would instruct to ensure that it is highly nutritive with additional vitamins added. “Did you know that you cannot go to the moon if you did not take ginseng?” she asks while saying ginseng is her favourite drink and that is what made her write so many romances one after another…it gives vitality and a certain amount of long life. Well, so much for going to the moon!
Cartland says, “My mother brought us up saying you have got to do something in this world. You have to give something to the world and if you are pretty you have more to give than somebody who is ugly…” Even as you pause to laugh at that, serious Cartland purses her lips and goes on, “The most expensive thing we could give is to give ourselves. We all (her siblings and herself) believed we had something to give to help people, to improve the world.” Cartland says she was not looking for attention with all the popularity she gained by writing books, she was merely building her platform on which she could stand and says what she wanted to. “That is why I get letters telling me what a good effect I have on their girls. My writing has had tremendous impact…”
Cartland says in her times girls were treated like porcelain…so precious. “People respected purity and innocence.. .a marvellous thing for girls to have…” Cartland asserts that girls at eighteen should be virgins for that is best for their life and health. She completely believes in the women’s lib movement but that does not mean young girls are taken for a ride where they end up with deep regrets and bad health.
Cartland died at the age of 99 leaving as many as 160 unpublished manuscripts. “There is no such thing as death,” she says in her interview. “The life force goes out of the body and you have a new body, if you lucky enough to have a body…you can call on the life force by concentration, meditation, prayer…”
A lady with spirit.
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