Barbara Cartland dug her pearls

Here's romance novelist Barbara Cartland in the 1950's, posing for a publicity photo with FIVE strings of pearls arranged in a formidable necklace. Are they real? Why not! By 1951, she had already published 40 novels, with titles like Bitter Winds of Love (1938) and Escape from Passion (1945), and what else are you gonna do with those royalty checks but dress it up right? Pile on the pearls! The wild flip of abandon at the top of her hairdo was not unusual for Cartland -- she was still wearing her hair that way in photos 40 years later.