Book 1

Reissue of the perenially popular dynastic rags to riches saga to coincide with the publication of its sequel, Emma’s Secret.

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.


Hold the Dream

by Barbara Taylor Bradford

Published 28 March 1985

The continuing story of Emma Harte, indomitable heroine of A Woman of Substance.

Emma Harte is now eighty years old and ready to hand over the reins of the vast business empire she has created.

To her favourite grandchild, Paula McGill Fairley, Emma bequeaths her mighty retailing empire with these heartfelt words: `I charge you to hold my dream.'

A towering international success, this is the powerfully moving tale of one woman's determination to `hold the dream' which was entrusted to her, and in so doing find the happiness and passion which is her legacy.