This Is Your Life: Barbara Cartland 1

Barbara CARTLAND (1901-2000)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Barbara Cartland, novelist, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the audience at the BBC Television Theatre.

Barbara, who was born into an upper-middle-class family in Edgbaston, Birmingham, was a flapper girl on the London social scene of the early 1920s, contributing to the society gossip columns of various newspapers. She used this experience as the basis of her first novel, Jigsaw, published in 1923 and described as 'Mayfair with the lid off'. She continued writing throughout the 1930s, specialising in contemporary and historical romance novels while providing articles and columns for various publications.

She developed an interest in politics and civic welfare, assisting her brother Ronald in his electoral campaign to become MP for King's Norton, Birmingham. Later, during the Second World War, she volunteered with the Auxiliary Territorial Service and the St John Ambulance Brigade. By the mid-1950s, Barbara had established herself as the Queen of Romance, having published 80 novels.

Barbara Cartland was a subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions - surprised again by Michael Aspel in November 1989 at Elstree Studios.

programme details...

Edition No: 60
Subject No: 60
Broadcast live: Mon 24 Mar 1958
Broadcast time: 8.00-8.30pm
Venue: BBC Television Theatre
Series: 3
Edition: 26

on the guest list...

Polly - mother
Clare Wade
Freda Breitmayer
Georges Carpentier
Ivy Allen
Gp Capt Edward Mole
Mrs Koby
Joyce Camden
William Knight
Ald J A Canvin
Raine, Viscountess Lewisham - daughter
Elfrida Eden

production team...

Researchers: George Bruce, Bill Nolan
Writer: Nigel Ward
Director: Vere Lorrimer
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

with thanks to Ian McCorquodale for his contribution to this page

related pages...

Barbara Cartland

second tribute

A Novel Life

a page-turning good read

Life Second Time Around

surprised again!

The Audience

the applause, laughter and tears

Producing Life

the producers who steered the programme's success

The Big Red Book

the programme's icon

Barbara Cartland This Is Your Life Big Red Book

Photographs of Barbara Cartland This Is Your Life - and a photograph of Barbara Cartland's big red book

Barbara Cartland recalls her experience of This Is Your Life in her autobiography, We Danced All Night...

In May 1922, 2LO broadcast a commentary on a boxing match between Kid Lewis and the handsome heart-throb Georges Carpentier at Olympia. Of course, the Daily Mail was behind the enterprise, which I didn't see as I disliked boxing; but I was present at the three-minute Carpentier-Beckett fight at the Holborn Stadium in 1919, when the gate money of £30,000 broke all records.

When Eamonn Andrews interviewed me in the programme This Is Your Life in 1958 the BBC flew Georges Carpentier from France to meet me, Eamonn said to him:

'Wasn't it quite a new thing in 1919 for ladies to watch boxing?'

'In those days perhaps it was,' Carpentier replied, 'but it was always evening dress at the ringside, you know, and boxing had become a fashionable sport.'

'You were something of a social lion too, Georges.'

'People were very kind,' Carpentier smiled, 'and I enjoyed myself. I met many charming people over here, and I think of my visits with great affection. Ladies like Miss Cartland made me realise that, despite the war, England still retained something of the old elegance.'

'We were in love with you,' I told him as he kissed my hand.

Series 3 subjects