Woman of Substances: A Journey into Addiction and Treatment

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A Woman of Substance is a novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford, published in 1979. The novel is the first of a seven-book saga about the fortunes of a retail empire and the machinations of the business elite across three generations. The series, featuring Emma Harte and her family also includes Hold The Dream, To Be The Best, Emma's Secret, Unexpected Blessings, Just Rewards and Breaking the Rules. A Woman of Substance was adapted as an eponymous television miniseries as were the sequels Hold the Dream and To Be the Best. A celebration of an indomitable spirit, here is New York Times bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford's dazzling saga of a woman who dared to dream--and to triumph against all odds...

For this reason, Valentish says, childhood and adult sexual abuse, as well as domestic violence and addiction in pregnancy and motherhood, are areas that need to be better researched and funded from a treatment perspective. The character of Emma is a strong one. She's a calloused, strong willed, business woman at her core. She doesn't allow anyone to take advantage of her or mistreat her, including the men in her life, which is a huge thing for a novel published in the seventies. There was even a movie based on this book, which was also well- received, but I have no memory of watching that either. My taste and interest changed many times over the years, and on many occasions I felt a pang of regret for missing out on so many great books in my teenage and young adult years- this book being one of them. Many times, I have thought to read this book, but, with aThe story begins in the twilight of Emma’s life as she sits on top of the world basking in the daily operations of her empire and all the accoutrements of her vast wealth. But, when she is informed that forces are working to overthrow her, taking her decision -making authority away- she sets a plan in action… It wasn't discussed with my family; it was something I was dealing with alone, and it emerged as depression and anxiety [in my teens]. It was fairly pedestrian abuse when set against some of the stories I’ve heard,” she writes in her new book Woman of Substances, “but it set off a catastrophic chain reaction all the same.” But why did she decide to write about a Pakhtun family? Mir says that she has family links with that culture and that she became interested in the community in Bradford years ago when she was out on a reporting assignment and found herself in a beautiful garden crescent in Bradford, which turned out to be populated entirely by Pakhtun families. Read: Jessica Martin, ‘ Woman of Substances: Why Jenny Valentish is lifting the veil on women's addiction’, ABC News, June 11 2017.

Admitting fault takes a depth of character. Because let’s be honest, it’s not always so easy to do. A friend described it as a "delicious read," which is an apt description. Another friend refers to as "your biblical guide for attaining excellence." I read it 30 years ago in my bookclub and I am currently re-reading it. I read the series, each about the next generation of the Harte family, and enjoyed them immensely, but each book stands alone with satisfying endings. I loved the adaptation with Jenny Seagrove who gave Emma sufficient warmth to make her likeable and read the book again as a result and though I still enjoyed the story, I was not so enraptured as first time round. It is overlong and would benefit from some judicious pruning.In fact, rather than just looking at the surface, she prefers to dig much deeper — not only within herself but also in others. 3. You don’t judge a book by its cover I don’t know,” she answers carefully. “But I’m very conscious of the fact that I have written a crime novel, I haven’t written something to represent Pakistani culture. I just want to tell a story — like any writer wants to tell a story. The Khan has been likened to The Godfather and that was well received by Italian Americans even though it was about a crime family.” These may come as a consequence, but her real substance is found in her admirable qualities that bring her strength. Valentish says the experts she interviewed — including drug and alcohol counsellors and clinical psychologists — said a significant proportion of their female clients had been sexually abused as children (estimates ranged from "around 70 per cent to 99.9 per cent"), and that during her time in AA, many women shared tales of sexual abuse. If you or someone you know needs help: