Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsDreadful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 August 2018
Barbara Taylor Bradford is a much loved international writer, in the best-seller lists for decades. I have always thought I should read one of her books because, like me, she was brought up in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Finally, I downloaded Woman of Substance. It begins with Emma as an old woman at the head of her business empire. I was more interested in Yorkshire, so after quite a few pages of melodrama with over-long descriptions and what seemed very stilted dialogue I skipped to the part where Emma is a young girl in a poor family in Yorkshire. I thought Ms Bradford captured the dialect quite well, considering that she must have written this many years after experiencing it for herself, but I'm afraid that's about all I can say for it. Everything, everybody, is described over and over again in language that you might expect from someone emerging from a creative writing course, and the characters become caricatures.
I hate to offend any of her fans who read this, but I think the book is dreadful. Although, perhaps I didn't give it a fair trial. I stopped reading at 40% completed, with another 12 hours still to go. If only I could have deleted the adjectives I would have probably finished it.
