Annual lecture and prize proposed as Taylor Bradford made library patron

Barbara Taylor Bradford is to become a patron of the Leeds Library and it is anticipated the appointment will also see an annual lecture and literary prize set up in her name. 

The lecture is expected to coincide with International Women’s Day and, along with the literary prize, will "aim to champion women’s writing both regionally and nationally".

Taylor Bradford was born in Upper Armley in Leeds and began her career as a journalist for theYorkshire Evening Post. She then moved to London to work on Fleet Street and continued on to America to pursue her writing career. She is the author of 38 novels, and her 39th A Man of Honour (HarperCollins) publishes later this month.

Martin Staniforth, chair of the trustees at the Leeds Library, said: "We are honoured that Barbara Taylor Bradford OBE has agreed to support the library as a patron. As a charity that has championed the work of local writers over a number of years it seems fitting that Barbara, as the most successful author ever to come from Leeds, should be a patron. We are looking forward to working with her over the coming months and years to help establish both an annual lecture and literary award which we hope will inspire more people from the city to take up writing."

Taylor Bradford added: "It is a huge privilege to be asked to be a patron for The Leeds Library, an organisation that shares my commitment to celebrating and supporting creative writing in all of its forms as well as promoting literacy. I am really looking forward to working with everyone at the library on a number of initiatives that will take place in a city that will forever be special to me."

She will join Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, writer Caryl Phillips and arts historian Nima Poovaya- Smith as patrons of the library, which was founded in 1768 and has a collection of more than 140,000 items.