Barbara Cartland - Later Life and Death

Later Life and Death

Her physical and mental health began to fail in her mid-90s but her spirit and courage were undiminished, and she remained a favourite with the press, granting interviews to international news agencies even during the final months of her life. Two of her last interviews were with the BBC and US journalist Randy Bryan Bigham. A biopic film was released titled In Love with Barbara, starring Anne Reid. Visitors to her home were always presented with a dedicated signed copy of one of her books, always signed in pink.

Her last project was to be filmed and interviewed for her life story (directed by Steven Glen for Blue Melon Films). The documentary, Virgins and Heroes, includes unique early home cine footage and Dame Barbara launching her website with pink computers in early 2000. At that time, her publishers estimated that since her writing career began in 1923, Cartland had produced a total of 723 titles. She was 98 years of age when she died on 21 May 2000.

She left behind a series of manuscripts, that are published in ebook format by her son, Ian McCorquodale, and are known as the Barbara Cartland Pink Collection. In 2010, to mark the 10th anniversary of her death, her first novel Jigsaw, was reproduced. After originally deciding she would like to be buried in her local parish church, featuring a marble construction, covered in angels, this was later changed and she was buried in a cardboard coffin, due to her concerns for environmental issues She was interred at her private estate in Hatfield, Hertfordshire under a tree that had been planted by Queen Elizabeth I.