Did you know that Barbara Cartland wrote 26 books in one year?
In fact, she is in the Guinness Book of World Records for this amazing achievement, and she authored a total of 723 books in her career. She mostly penned romantic fiction, but she also wrote health books, cookbooks, plays, and biographies. All her work was dictated.
Other fun facts about the author:
During World War II, she gathered wedding dresses for service brides.
In the 1960s, she campaigned for the rights of gypsies to have a permanent place to live in England.
She fought for better conditions and salaries for midwives and nurses.
In 1978, she released an album where she sang with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
She claimed that her daughter, Raine McCorquodale, was the daughter of Prince George, Duke of Kent.
She was the step-grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales.
In 1981, she was made Dame of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen of England for her contribution to literature and for her work for the community.
Her father died during World War I, and her two brothers during World War II.
Cécile Sune was born in Lyon, France, and her obsession with books started when she was 14. Her grandparents had lent her Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and she spent part of the summer indoors reading. Needless to say, her tan didn't really improve that year! It was also around that time that Cécile fell in love with the English language. Several years later, in 1999, Cécile moved to Toronto, Canada, with her cat and 5 suitcases. Her love of reading greatly increased when she discovered that English books were much cheaper than French novels. In 2013, she decided to start a blog to share her passion. Cécile now lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her husband and their daughter, and works as a freelance translator (CS Revision).
She began using morphine to ease the after-effects of typhoid fever contracted while working as a nurse during the Civil War. The illness was at the time treated with mercury, which caused pain, weakness and hallucinations to the patients. In addition, Louisa May Alcott sometimes suffered from deep depression. In fact, she might even have been bipolar. Other interesting facts about the author: Her parents supported the abolition of slavery…
As a child, she was sent to an English convent for her education, and she was a very dedicated student. In fact, the other girls called her “Sainte Aurore” (her real name is Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dudevant). When her grandmother found out that her granddaughter wanted to devote her life to religion, she immediately removed her from the convent and brought her home. Other fun facts about the author: George Sand’s father was…
She had problems with handwriting and spelling. As a result, she had to dictate all her novels. She also had difficulty with arithmetic and foreign language learning. Other fun facts about the author: Agatha Christie has sold more than 2 billion books worldwide. She wrote more than 90 novels and two dozen collections of short stories. Her work has been translated into more than a hundred languages. Her father died of pneumonia when she…