In The Great Dictator, a life of Barbara Cartland Matthew Sweet presents a wickedly funny and perfectly outrageous portrait of the queen of romance, featuring high society, bad behaviour, violet creams and Baby Jane eyelashes.

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.

In addition to Matthew’s highly entertaining talk, we will be treated to some brief film footage of Barbara Cartland herself, kindly provided by the East Anglia Film Archive.

Matthew Sweet is a broadcaster and author. He presents Free Thinking on BBC Radio 4.

Books will be available to purchase.

Tickets are £3, available from the library or contact Cambourne.Library@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

For information about accessibility and parking, please visit Cambridgeshire Online | Cambourne Library