Cartland as a young socialite

In her later years she was an unforgettable figure. She usually appeared in public wearing a mass of pink chiffon and heavily made-up.

She attributed her long healthy life to honey and the vitamins she had always advocated.

The daughter of an Army officer, Barbara Cartland published her first novel, Jigsaw, when she was 21, and it ran into five editions.

Her books were mainly straightforward love stories, often sentimental and always without any literary pretensions, but they never wanted for readers.

Typical titles were A Virgin in Mayfair, Cupid Rides Pillion and Stars in my Heart.

More recently there were Wanted - A Wedding Ring, Love is Invincible and Desire in the Desert.

Full life

Cartland: An unforgettable figure

Dame Barbara was active in many other walks of life.

She was a Conservative county councillor; she lectured and often broadcast on radio and television - impervious to or perhaps unconscious of - the mocking of interviewers such as Malcolm Muggeridge.

She organised exhibitions, she did work for the ATS, the St. John Ambulance and the Royal College of Midwives.

She carried on a vigorous campaign on behalf of gypsies and she helped her second husband, Hugh McCorquodale, to run his farm in Hertfordshire.

The child of her first marriage became the Countess of Dartmouth, and later Lady Spencer - stepmother to the Princess of Wales.

When she was in her late eighties Barbara Cartland started a romantic writing correspondence course.

She had received so many letters from would-be authors that she decided to share her technique to give the world what it needs - more beauty and love.