James Cartland helped to build up City of Birmingham and was twice offered a Baronetcy and a Knighthood - all of which he refused. James married Flora Falkner who was a direct descendant of King Robert Bruce of Scotland. The couple only had one son, James Bertram Falkner Cartland, who fell in love and married with Mary ( Polly ) Hamilton Scobell. The couple moved to Worcestershire and on July 9th 1901 at Vectis Lodge, Edgbaston - Barbara Cartland (Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland ) was born.

The family, were originally born into an enviable degree of middle class security, but suicide of her paternal grandfather left them short of money. The family were forced to move to Amerie Court in Pershore. Tragedy struck once again when Major James Cartland was killed in France in final weeks of ending of First World War. Barbara Cartland was just seventeen. When asked by her mother where she would like to live, Barbara Cartland chose London and family, including her two brothers Ronald and Anthony, subsequently moved to capital. Her enterprising mother opened a London dress shop to make ends meet "Poor I may be," Polly Cartland once said, "but common I am not". Anthony and Ronald would both be killed in battle, one day apart, in 1940.

After attending Malvern Girls' College and Abbey House, an educational institution in Hampshire, Cartland became a successful journalist and a gossip columnist. Her first novel, "Jigsaw," was published in 1923. It was a huge success and Barbara Cartland began to write seriously in order to earn money.

In 1927 Barbara Cartland married Alexander George McCorquodale, a former Officer of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who was heir to a British printing fortune. They had a daughter called Raine who became "Deb of Year" in 1947 and much later stepmother of Diana, Prince of Wales.

You might be tempted into thinking that Barbara Cartland lived in a fantasy pink world of imagination if it were not for fact that she has achieved many great things. Her interests have been extensive and she has even written countless books and articles about health and encouraged use of alternative medicine. In fact, Barbara Cartland answered 40,000 letters a year, of which, 30,000 were about health. She frequently wrote journals and reports about health products which was unpaid work. This is a lady who was very much 'in touch' with modern world.

Barbara Cartland was awarded for Achievement by Prime Minister Chirac of France honour bestowed upon her by City of Paris in a country where over thirty million copies her books had been sold. Since this time figure has risen to over sixty million.