{"product_id":"matthew-sweet-the-great-dictator-2026-hardback","title":"Matthew Sweet: The Great Dictator [2026] hardback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e THE PERFECTLY OUTRAGEOUS BIOGRAPHY OF QUEEN OF ROMANCE BARBARA CARTLAND\u003cbr\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE\u003cbr\u003e'deliciously well written' - Nigella Lawson\u003cbr\u003e'a comic gem of a biography' - Craig Brown\u003cbr\u003e'Sweet writes with great wit and brio' -\u003ci\u003e Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Every page is a cliff-hanger' - \u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Fantastically enjoyable' - \u003ci\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Eye-popping' - \u003ci\u003eThe London Standard\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e'\u003c\/i\u003eOutrageously entertaining' - \u003ci\u003eThe Bookseller\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'wry, affectionate and very readable' - Louis Theroux\u003cbr\u003e'jaw-dropping' - India Knight \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003ePenniless virgins. Reckless dukes. Flappers. Airmen. Suffragettes. Barbara Cartland made them fall in love. She wrote 723 books without touching a typewriter: instead, she reclined on her sofa with a Pekinese on her lap - and romantic fiction billowed out of her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis dazzling biography reveals the woman behind the powder and mascara - a clever, socially precarious writer navigating a twentieth-century world of war-damaged men, class conflict and sexual peril.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter 49 proposals, she chose the wrong one. What followed was a life stranger than any of her novels.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom country house weekends to Fleet Street offices, from Mayfair bedrooms to the divorce court, Matthew Sweet traces Cartland's extraordinary journey through a century of upheaval. Here are terrorist plots, psychic seances, suppressed scandals, plagiarism battles in the cutthroat world of romance publishing - and a surprising turn as a campaigner for Romany rights.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on unprecedented access to Cartland's vast archives and firsthand accounts from those who knew her, Sweet delivers a wonderfully entertaining study of class, fame, scandal and self-aggrandisement. Part satire, part biography, part social history, \u003ci\u003eThe Great Dictator\u003c\/i\u003e reveals how a literary legend was made.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'I really think this book might become the sleeper hit of the Christmas rush'. Robert McCrum\u003cbr\u003e'An excellent, compassionate biography of the wildly prolific romantic novelist'. \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Matthew Sweet, who seems born to write this biography, installs us in an open-topped two-seater, and puts his foot down on the gas like a boy racer, hurtling his readers through a no-man's-land of shell shock and party going'. \u003ci\u003eThe Tablet\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Sweet's prose is peppered with dry wit and sharpened by an eye for telling detail'. \u003ci\u003eThe Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'This book is superb. A psychologically acute rendering of a publishing phenomenon'. Jenny Colgan\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sweet, Matthew","offers":[{"title":"New","offer_id":55556901273939,"sku":"9781399715799","price":32.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/sweet-matthew-matthew-sweet-the-great-dictator-2026-hardback-9781399715799-1264134568.jpg?v=1792709260","url":"https:\/\/chaptersbookstore.pro\/products\/matthew-sweet-the-great-dictator-2026-hardback","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}