Barbara Cartland: My mum always played the heroine

Ian McCorquodale was his mother Barbara Cartland’s favourite child. The formidable romantic author liked men far more than women – a preference that applied even to her own offspring. Her relationship with Raine, her daughter from her first marriage, was always slightly frosty, although less publicly so once Raine married Earl Spencer, the father of Diana, Princess of Wales.

''Mum made it no secret that she preferred men to women,’’ recalls Ian. ''I said that was silly as most of her readers would be women. But she insisted she would rather have lunch with a stupid man than a clever woman.’’

Ian, now 75, adored his mother in return. A former publishing chairman of Debrett’s, he is paralysed down his left side as a result of two strokes in 2002 but manages to get around admirably well. “I put Mum on a pedestal even though she was dictatorial,” he admits. “And I did what she said because I hated upsetting her.”

Apart from a few years when he went to Canada to look after a branch of the McCorquodale’s family printing business, Ian was by her side throughout her long life. ''I saw a lot of her because I handled all her dealings with publishers, did her historical research and accompanied her on trips when she promoted her books abroad,’’ he says enthusiastically. Even now, thirteen years after her death, aged 98, in May 2000, he continues to look after her interests.

Dame Barbara wrote an astonishing 728 books, of which 664 were romantic fiction. Ian says he has read about 350. When she died she left 160 unpublished manuscripts. The historical detail may have varied, but the formula remained the same. “Her heroes were dark and handsome,” he smiles. “Her heroines were always blonde and the two individuals always fell into each others’ arms for the happiest of endings.

“At the age of 77, when most people put themselves out to grass, Barbara Cartland’’ – he refers to his mother in the third person when talking about her work – “doubled her output and wrote 25 books a year over 20 years. The last one when she was 97.

“Publishers threw up their hands in horror and said we cannot keep up with them. I’ve been publishing all 160 manuscripts, both as books and e-books online, through my publishing house M-Y Books. It’s called 'The Barbara Cartland Pink Collection’.”

Questions about the number of books sold are batted away. ''But I will say that they are doing better online,’’ Ian says. ''I am very excited, though, as Lightning Source [a branch of Ingrams Content Group], have just come on board and, as was announced last week, are going to handle worldwide distribution of the books, which I am sure will make a huge difference.”

Titles include She Wanted Love and A Heart Finds Love and have suitably kitsch cover illustrations. McCorquodale is convinced they will do well, despite the huge success of much more graphically erotic books such as Fifty Shades of Grey, in which women prefer bondage to bouquets.

“Barbara Cartland’s books will go on forever,’’ he insists loyally. “She is the only author in the western world who writes pure romance. I would never read a book like Fifty Shades or those by so-called romantic authors that are all sex and no story. With Barbara Cartland you get no sex but love, romance and a happy ending. I am absolutely thrilled that there seems to be a revival of interest in her.’’

I interviewed Barbara Cartland twice at her grand home, Camfield Place, a 10-bedroom mansion once owned by Beatrix Potter and set in 400 acres of farmland and woods near Hatfield, Hertfordshire. On each occasion she was elaborately dressed in her trademark vivid pink, wore a vast amount of make-up and had two plasters like thick sideburns pasted down the side of her face. “It’s a kind of facelift dear,’’ she told me.

She was lying on a corn-coloured sofa with pink cushions in the library, the same position she took up each afternoon when she would dictate 8,000 words of romantic fantasy to her secretary. It is claimed her books sold 750 million of copies worldwide. Diana loved them and Dame Barbara, who became her

step-grandmother, claimed they were the only books she read.

''We were all very surprised when Raine became Diana’s stepmother but loved the very romantic love story of her and Lord Spencer,’’ says Ian. ''Although Raine didn’t get on well with Diana when Earl Spencer was alive that changed once he died. I met Diana here a couple of times and thought she was the prettiest girl of her generation. Diana came to see Mum several times for tea before she got married and twice afterwards. Mum gave her books and vitamins to perk her up.’’

Today the mansion, with its rococo furniture, is crumbling and feels distinctly spooky. It is only inhabited when Dame Barbara’s other son Glen, a stockbroker who lives in London, comes to stay. Ian and his second wife Bryony Brind, a former Royal Ballet principal dancer who was Rudolf Nureyev’s last partner, live in a farmhouse on the estate.

Ian has two daughters from his first marriage, Tara, a school registrar and Iona, a publicist for a hedge fund. There are also four grandchildren aged from five to eight. He rarely gives interviews and chose to do so in the library, the room in which he ''most feels her presence’’. We were served coffee by Nigel, Cartland’s former butler turned cook, who has clocked up 46 years of service and is now well into his seventies.

It was believed that Dame Barbara’s wealth from her writing extended to seven figures, but after her death it was revealed that there was nothing left. Raine wasn’t even mentioned in the will.

''I don’t know what happened to all the money,’’ Ian admits, but he doesn’t complain. ''She did live very extravagantly. The house is worth a fortune but we have no intention of selling.’’ He shudders at the thought.

''I love coming here. All I know is that it won’t be turned into a museum or be opened to the public. But we have sold some of her clothes so that others can enjoy them.’’

The public know much about her writings, but little of her as a parent. So what sort of a mother was she?

“There were lots of cuddles but also lots of tickings off. She also told me when I was a baby that I looked exactly like an angel and she worried that God might come and take me away.’’ He smiles. ''Unfortunately I am not at all beautiful now.

''The only thing I really hated was when she insisted on sending me away to board at Lockers Park school in Hemel Hempstead in 1945 when I was eight. I used to weep copious tears on her bosom on the last day of every holiday at the thought of leaving her.

“I hated school because the boys ganged up on me and I was bullied. Mum liked me to have long hair down to my neck and all the boys used to call me a girl. I put up with the teasing and bullying and kept my hair long just to please her. Fortunately Harrow, my public school, was much better.’’

Dame Barbara was first married to Alexander McCorquodale, the father of Raine. He was an army officer who drank heavily. Their divorce in 1933 made lurid headlines with charges and counter-charges of infidelity. It was a time when divorce could easily ruin a woman’s reputation, but Dame Barbara, revealing a steely determination and heartlessness, almost immediately married her former husband’s cousin Hugh McCorquodale, with whom she went on to have two sons, Ian and Glen. The couple stayed together until Hugh’s death 28 years later in 1963.

''I was 26 when he died,’’ Ian recalls, ''and immediately became the substitute man in the house. Mum leant on me much more and I felt very responsible for her. At dinner, which was always black tie, I would sit at one end of our long dining table while she sat at the other in full evening dress even when it was just the two of us. We ate formally with all the silverware until she was 97.’’

Men who are particularly devoted to their mothers often have difficulty in finding wives. Ian, however, married Anna Chisholm in 1970, but confesses: ''Mum was very disappointed I had daughters rather than sons.’’

He and Anna divorced in 1993. ''Mum and my former wife didn’t see eye to eye on a few things but I didn’t worry about the arguments,’’ he says guardedly. ''Anna and I drifted apart and when I told Mum we were divorcing she said I would soon find someone else but it took me 10 years to marry again.

''She got on very well with my second wife Bryony.’’ He leans forward. ''We met where everyone meets in London, at a cocktail party, in 1995 and I’m mad about her. It’s a real Barbara Cartland story.’’

Later in the interview, Bryony, 52, joined us and recalled the first time she was introduced to her future mother-in-law. ''We’d been together about two months when Ian said he’d like me to meet his mother, but didn’t say who she was. Instead he said 'please dress up as best you possibly can for dinner’.

''I did as he asked and only realised who she was once she started talking. I listened carefully but while I did so, to my amazement, each of the three courses was whisked away by staff before I’d had a single mouthful.

“Ian later told me that she didn’t like sitting around a table eating for long and I just hadn’t been quick enough. I realised she would always be jealous of anyone Ian would marry, and Ian’s first wife had a bit of a run, but she liked the fact I was a dancer and told me I looked like one of her heroines.’’

They postponed their wedding planned for May 2000 because of Dame Barbara’s final illness. As it transpired, she died on the day they were due to marry. Ian and Bryony wed in September that year.

''Mum didn’t like growing old and writing was her way of escaping – especially towards the end,’’ Ian adds sadly.

''She was confined to bed for the last six months. We had round-the-clock nursing and I stayed in the house most of the time. I would sit and hold her hand, but what she really liked was listening to Frank Sinatra. She passed away in the middle of the night and I am so pleased she died at home rather than in hospital. Glen was here and Raine came straight away once she heard the news.’’

His eyes fill with tears. ''Although it was expected it was still a shock and I very much grieved for her. Sometimes I think she is still here guiding me. It will take me more than three years to get the books all published and online, but the exercise will give her a whole new lease of life.

''The extraordinary thing about Mum is that she could see her story going on in her mind as if she was watching TV. She was always the heroine being swept up in the perfect hero’s arms.’’ It remains to be seen if this is still the fantasy of women in the 21st century, too.