Hundreds of Missing Barbara Cartland Unpublished Manuscripts Discovered

Posted on November 16, 2004

Not to put any pressure on you or anything, but it appears that romance novelist and legend Barbara Cartland is still publishing several books a year -- even though she passed away four years ago. According to The Guardian there are still 158 as-yet unpublished mansucripts in the estate of Princess Diana's step-grandmother, Dame Barbara.

The author's Who's Who entry lists her as writing 723 romances in 77 years as a published author. Her son found the additional stories after her death, just lying around in piles tied with her favorite pink ribbon in her library at Camfield Place, Hertfordshire. After being proof-read by her son Ian McCorquodale, the books are being self-published and offered to readers through a commemorative website, barbaracartland.com.

The prolific author dictated her stories to secretaries and, until 1977, she wrote 10 books a year. But her public demanded more, so she increased her output to 20 books a year -- one every 18 days -- and maintained that pace until 1997 when her eyesight and hearing failed her.

There is never any pre-marital shenanigans in a Barbara Cartland novel, and she disapproved of promiscuity. But she heartily approved of marital relations, noting her fondness for France, "because it is the only country where you can make love in the afternoon without someone hammering on the door."

She sold over one billion books in her lifetime.