A Woman of Substance

I have the heart of a man, not of a woman, and I am not afraid of anything…
–ELIZABETH I, Queen of England

the will to live is the strongest force in the world

Through all the vicissitudes of her life, whenever she had faced the gravest problems imaginable, she had been totally abandoned and so forced to depend entirely on her own resources.

Now, in the shadows and stillness of the night, the area appeared to her as a petrified forest, suspended in time and space, inanimate, frozen and lifeless.

Forgotten memories, nostalgic and poignant, rushed back to her with force and clarity. Images, no longer nebulous and abandoned, took living form.

He had once told Tony Osborne that the bricks and mortar of the store were wrought from her great vision, her amazing facility for finance, and her uncanny ability to rise from the most impossible situations to triumph.

that if character did determine a man’s destiny then every man and woman created their own heaven or hell.

We are each the authors of our own lives, Emma. We live in what we have created. There is no way to shift the blame and no one else to accept the accolades.’

no one ever escaped the past. It was the burden of the present and of the future and you carried it with you always.

The crystal flakes fell in glittering white flurries, swirling and eddying in the wind, brushing up against the window and coating it with a light film as delicate and as fine as white lace.

Time had always been evaluated as money and she did not want to waste it now, dwelling on the past, resurrecting painful events that had taken place some sixty years ago.

They were flying into the sun and a passage of light, very intense and golden, came in through the window.

, money is simply a unit, a tool to work with.

You know, Paula, when men believe they are dealing with a foolish or stupid woman they lower their guard, become negligent and sometimes even downright reckless. Unwittingly they often hand you the advantage on a plate.’

Power! Whatever they think of your ability, that power is the one thing they cannot ignore.

But she had seen it all before, had witnessed the rapacious pursuit of power all of her life, and she could take it in her stride. With her strength she was equipped to deal with it dispassionately. As Paula will have to learn to do, she told herself.

She looked at her granddaughter quizzically, a shrewd glint in her eyes, and when the girl did not answer, she continued: ‘Being underestimated by men is one of the biggest crosses I’ve had to bear all of my life, and it was particularly irritating to me when I was your age.

The one place on this violent planet where she had found peace, limitless peace that soothed and refreshed her. Her home.

Then he reminded me that this was what Emma had always done throughout her life… she had flaunted the rules and done it her way. And I can only say bravo to that.

Barbara Taylor Bradford

met on the moors above Fairley village. Suddenly