The novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford has said that she is worried that the #MeToo movement has made men wary of interacting with women, and that it “ought to sort of stop”.
Bradford, who is best known for her 1979 novel A Woman of Substance and its six sequels, said that she was happy that men like Harvey Weinstein had been brought down by the movement, but that she believes it has “gone a bit over the top”.
“I’m glad somebody had the guts to come and start talking about Harvey Weinstein,” she told The Guardian. “But, somehow, it has gone a bit over the top. I can’t explain it.”
She continued, “There are decent men out there – they’re not all monsters – and I think a lot of decent men don’t want to be alone with a woman. They think they might get falsely charged.
“I’m glad it happened, but I think it ought to sort of stop.”
The British-born author is celebrating the 40th anniversary of A Woman of Substance, along with the publication of her 34th novel, In the Lion’s Den.
She said that her late husband, Robert, who died in July, told her repeatedly that she must continue writing if he were to ever die.
Bradford recalled: “Bob had drilled it into me for the last 20 years: ‘If anything happens to me, don’t stop working. You’ve got a God-given gift. You can sit down at your desk and write a book that people want to read. And it gives you great solace.’
“I didn’t want to talk about that. I’d say: ‘No, nothing’s going to happen to you.’ … There’s only so many tears in the end, you’ve just got to get on with it.”
