Barbara Cartland (1901–2000) One of most prolific and best selling authors of romantic fiction.

Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, DBE, CStJ (9 July 1901 – 21 May 2000) was an English novelist who wrote romance novels, one of the best-selling authors as well as one of the most prolific and commercially successful worldwide of the 20th century. Her 723 novels were translated into 38 languages and she continues to be referenced in the Guinness World Records for the most novels published in a single year in 1976.

As Barbara Cartland she is known for writing numerous romantic novels but she had also written books under her married name of Barbara McCorquodale and briefly under the pseudonym of Marcus Belfry. She wrote more than 700 books, as well as plays, music, verse, drama, magazine articles and operetta, and was a prominent philanthropist.