A Woman of Substance

A Woman of Substance is a novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford, and was published in 1979.

This novel is the first of a saga about the fortunes of a retail empire and the machinations of the business elite across three generations. It is the first of six novels about Emma Harte and her family. Subsequent novels are Hold The Dream, To Be The Best, Emma's Secret, Unexpected Blessings and Just Rewards.

Plot summary

The book starts with Emma, now an old lady, flying to New York with her personal assistant and favourite grandchild, Paula. Emma contemplates the empire she has created and trains Paula, to be her successor as the head of Harte Stores and represent her mother, Daisy Amory, at Sitex.

On their arrival in New York, Emma's secretary, Gaye, tells her that she heard Emma's sons discussing their plan to force her to retire and break up her empire so the pieces can be sold. Devastated initially, Emma isn't surprised but changes her will, choosing to leave her business interests to her grandchildren instead.

The story then goes back to when Emma was a teenager and working as a servant at Fairley Hall in rural Yorkshire. Her father, Jack, and two brothers, Winston and Frank, also work for the Fairley family. Jack and Frank work at the mill and Winston works at the brickyard. After the death of his mother, Winston joins the navy as he had wanted to since he was a child. As parlourmaid, Emma sees a lot of the family and becomes friends with the younger son, Edwin. They bond over the death of their mothers. One day, they realise they feel more for each other than friendship, becoming more intimate and Emma gets pregnant. Edwin, horrified at this news, refuses to marry her so she moves to Leeds. Wanting to protect herself and her child from gossip, Emma tells her landlady and new friends that she is married to Winston, a sailor currently away at sea.

While looking for work, she meets Abraham Kallinski and rescues him from an attack by local youths. After she gets rid of them, she sees Abraham isn't well and walks him home. He introduces her to his wife, Janessa and sons, David and Victor. Janessa, out of gratitude, invites Emma to stay for dinner. When Emma tells them she is looking for work, Abraham immediately offers her a job. He and David are pleased with Emma's work and she becomes good friends with them.

As the birth of her baby approaches, Blackie (one of Emma's friends) arranges for her to meet another friend of his, Laura Spencer. Laura needs someone to share household expenses and Emma needs someone to look after her so it seemed ideal. They become good friends, Emma moves in and Laura gets her a job at Thompson's Mill. In March, Emma has a daughter and names her Edwina. Needing to work to support them, Emma's cousin, Freda, takes Edwina. After a year of working two jobs, Emma makes enough money to rent a shop in Armley. This shop is a success and Emma's business expands to two shops, then three. Not expecting to see the Fairleys, she is horrified when Gerald visits. He found her after seeing she worked at Thompsons' Mill, now owned by his father. He tells her Edwin will soon be engaged and demands she tell him where the child is. Emma refuses and after a violent confrontation, realizes she needs someone to protect her. Worried Gerald will return, she marries her landlord, Joe Lowther. They became friends when he taught her how to do her own accounts. Soon after their marriage, he and Emma have a son, Christopher, nicknamed Kit.

Emma's business continues to expand with Emma going into business with the Kallinskis. Unfortunately her private life doesn't run as smoothly. Joe is killed in the battle of the Somme and Laura, now married to Blackie, dies giving birth to a son, Bryan. Emma takes him and Bryan lives with Emma and her children until Blackie returns from the war.

In early 1918, Emma meets Paul McGill. They fall in love but he is in the Australian army and returns to France after recovering from a leg injury. After the war, he goes home and despite promising to write, never does. Emma, hurt and disappointed, especially when she finds out he and his wife have a son, turns to an acquaintance for consolation and marries again. She and her new husband have twins, Robin and Elizabeth, but the marriage is short-lived as Paul returns. He kept in touch with Emma's brother, Frank and Frank told him that Emma's marriage is unhappy and arranges a meeting between Emma and Paul, at Paul's request. Emma is angry but calms down when Paul explains why he never wrote to her. They start dating again and she divorces her husband when pregnant with Paul's child. Emma has a daughter that they name Daisy after his mother.

In February 1939, seeing war on the horizon, Paul sends Emma to England and goes to Australia. While there, he is seriously injured in a car crash and almost dies. He survives but is told that he will be dead within a year so he redraws his will, leaving almost everything to Emma and Daisy and commits suicide. Emma is devastated but eventually recovers enough to look after her family and business empires.

Emma's life goes on. Her children marry and have children of their own - Edwina, Kit and Robin have one child each, Elizabeth marries repeatedly and has four and Daisy marries and has two.

Back in 1968, Emma invites her family to her house in Yorkshire for the weekend. They come, curious to see how she is after recovering from pneumonia, and she tells them what they will inherit in her will. Her older children are furious but accept the money Emma offers as bribes not to cause trouble. Her grandchildren are pleased and all promise to run their section well. Emma also gives her blessing to Paula becoming involved with Jim Fairley. He is Edwin's grandson and she tells him Edwina is his aunt but he had guessed, seeing her resemblance to his great-grandmother, Adele. Jim also has a surprise for Emma, giving her a stone she and Edwin found, revealing the woman painted on it, was her mother, Elizabeth. He tells her about the history of brief but tragic relationships between Fairley men and Harte women and tells her that on his deathbed, Edwin asked Jim to beg Emma to allow Paula and Jim the happiness they were denied. He also asked for her forgiveness as Jim revealed Edwin had never recovered from the guilt he suffered for abandoning her and their child. Emma was happy to forgive Edwin and give her blessing to Jim and Paula's marriage.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

In 1984, the book was adapted as a television miniseries starring Malaysian-born British actress Jenny Seagrove as the young Emma Harte. Deborah Kerr plays the older Emma Harte. The debut UK screening of this series in January 1985 gave Channel 4 its highest ever audience figures, with 13.8 million viewers. The sequels Hold The Dream and To Be The Best were made. Hold The Dream features Deborah Kerr as Emma Harte and Jenny Seagrove as her young granddaughter, Paula. To Be The Best stars Lindsay Wagner as Paula, running Emma's empire 10 years after Emma's death. All three programs are available on DVD.