Barbara Cartland biographer Matthew Sweet spoke about the rich life of the English socialite and writer at The Oldie Literary Lunch, sponsored by Kirker Holidays.
Barbara Cartland is now most famous for her looks, he said. As Clive James said, her mascara-covered face looked like ‘Two crows who’d flown into a chalk cliff.’
In fact, her favourite make-up was Meltonian shoe cream - it doesn’t run when you cry.
She was much mocked in Private Eye. But she was so wise that she always bought the caricatures of her. She made it up with Richard Ingrams and became the agony aunt of the Oldie, where she eventually got the sack for promoting vitamin pills, in which she had a financial interest.
Cartland, Matthew said, was astonishingly prolific. At 1.30pm every day, she dictated her books to a secretary, who wasn’t allowed to breathe heavily or cough. As a result, she composed 8,000 words a day. And her books sold 750 million copies. She is still the third biggest-selling author in history, after Shakespeare and Agatha Christie.
And, what’s more, she was sponsored by Dewhurst’s the butcher.
