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The Great Dictator

the book everyone (from Nigella Lawson to Louis Theroux) can't stop talking about...

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The Great Dictator

By: Matthew Sweet
Narrated by: Matthew Sweet
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THE PERFECTLY OUTRAGEOUS BIOGRAPHY OF QUEEN OF ROMANCE BARBARA CARTLAND
LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE
'a comic gem of a biography' - Craig Brown
'Sweet writes with great wit and brio' - Observer
'Every page is a cliff-hanger' - The Spectator
'Fantastically enjoyable' - Literary Review
'Outrageously entertaining' - The Bookseller
'wry, affectionate and very readable' - Louis Theroux
'jaw-dropping' - India Knight

Penniless 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.

This 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.

After 49 proposals, she chose the wrong one. What followed was a life stranger than any of her novels.

From 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.

Drawing 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, The Great Dictator reveals how a literary legend was made.

'I really think this book might become the sleeper hit of the Christmas rush'. Robert McCrum
'An excellent, compassionate biography of the wildly prolific romantic novelist'. The Guardian
'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'. The Tablet
'Sweet's prose is peppered with dry wit and sharpened by an eye for telling detail'. The Telegraph
'This book is superb. A psychologically acute rendering of a publishing phenomenon.' Jenny Colgan©2026 Matthew Sweet (P)2026 Hodder & Stoughton Limited Art & Literature Authors Entertainment & Celebrities Women Witty War
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This is such a strange, funny, unexpectedly touching story - told with wry humour and generosity of spirit. Absolutely delightful listen, whatever your feelings about Ms Cartland and her work. She certainly lived through amazing times.

Excellent book!

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what a vacuous woman she was...this book is dull with the tiniest glimpse of her humour and niceness but boy is it miniscule. Hours of privileged living and consumption and apparently witty talk but was boring... waste of a credit

so dull

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Before I go to sleep each night, I have to listen to something gentle to get me off to the land of dreams. Goldilocks-like for me, the audiobook has to have just the right narration, genre, pace, storyline, vibe, lightness and wit.
Matthew, this is a huge compliment: I haven't slept this well since I was a child!

Outstanding

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Such a surprising book. Babs was more than the pomp, pink, and privilege that people perceive her to be. A fascinating book, especially her earlier life.

Revelation

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I loved the social history of the story, knowing about the content of the books and the decadent way wealthy people conducted their lives.

The facts

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