At the age of 15, she started working for the Yorkshire Evening Post as a typist. Within three years, she was the newspaper's women's page editor and soon moved on to become a fashion editor in Fleet Street. She made her name as a novelist with A Woman of Substance in 1979 which, like most of her books, has a Yorkshire setting or main character and 20 million copies have been sold. She now lives in New York and received an OBE last year.

What's your first memory of being outdoors?

We lived in Tower Lane, near where the trams turned round at Whingate Junction. I suppose in those days Armley was rather countrified and we had a little garden with rose bushes. There were some steps down to it and I fell in and got covered in scratches because I was wearing a bathing suit. I was about three at the time. I was a bit of a tomboy, I was always falling out of trees and things, so I was rather a clumsy tomboy. I don't actually remember being covered in scratches. But I remember what I was told.

What's your favourite part of the county and why?

My favourite place is the deer park at Studley Royal. Ripley I know so well because my mother took me there a lot from an early age because of her connections with it. This was quite a trek, we didn't have a car. We'd take the tram to Leeds, the bus to Harrogate and another bus to Ripon. We used to stay with cousins for the weekend.

What's your idea of a perfect weekend/day out in Yorkshire?

I was taken to a lot of Yorkshire stately homes as a child and I still like that kind of thing. So it would be that, plus a nice pub lunch.

Do you have a favourite walk, or view?

My mother used to drag me to these great houses. I say dragged – I always enjoyed it when we got there. We used to go to Temple Newsam and they had a wonderful walk, a rhododendron walk and we went when everything was in bloom. That sticks in my mind. It was extraordinary when the flowers were out.

Is there a Yorkshire sportsman/woman (past or present) you would like to take for lunch?

No. I was never any good at tennis or any of the other sports you were supposed to do. I preferred to read.

Which Yorkshire stage or screen star (past or present) would you like to take for lunch?

There are several. James Mason, a marvellous actor with a wonderful
voice. Michael Rennie, I think he was from Harrogate, who was in The Third Man with Orson Welles. Also Patrick Stewart. I went to see Patrick in Macbeth in London and he was extraordinary. That would be a nice party for lunch.

If you had to name your Yorkshire hidden gem, what would it be?

Because I'm an imaginative person, I find Middleham Castle is redolent of the past for me. I can go there and see it when it was the home of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick – I love the Wars of the Roses and the Plantagenets. It's very beautiful and from above the ruins, you can see the gallops with the stable boys riding the racehorses across the landscape. You couldn't say it's hidden. But in the way I visit it and
see into the past, you could say it was my hidden gem.

What do you think gives Yorkshire its unique identity?

When I started out, there were four novels I never finished. When I had the idea for A Woman of Substance, I instantly thought that the main character had to be from Yorkshire and be set there because I know the people – and it's the true grit in their character I needed. I think we're special, but someone who comes from Kent probably thinks they're special, too. Is there something unique about the Yorkshire character? I'd say it was strong and determined, very welcoming, genuine and hospitable.

Do you have a favourite restaurant or pub?

Bettys in Harrogate. I haven't been for ages, but if I'm in Harrogate, I always go and I buy some Taylor's tea from there to take home.

How do you think Yorkshire has changed in the time you've known it?

Leeds has changed a lot. It looks fantastic, sort of shining and bright, quite modernised. I can't do the walk I used to take in the mornings, getting off the tram at City Square, then past Marshall and Snelgrove in Commercial Street to the Yorkshire Post offices because parts seem to have been closed off with them being pedestrianised. But I think the changes have been for the better. It's marvellous to see Leeds so prosperous again. Leeds University, where they keep my archives and manuscripts, has been spruced-up and is looking very nice. It's a place I admire greatly.

Name your favourite Yorkshire book or author.

It's the Brontës, of course; I grew up with them. I think Emily Brontë is one of the geniuses of English Literature. Wuthering Heights is an amazing book, it's written with two narrators, Nellie Dean and Mr Lockwood. To my way of thinking, it's not a great love story – it's really a book about revenge. It's a man coming back to exact revenge on those who demeaned and abandoned him.

Barbara Taylor Bradford's latest book is The Heir, published by St Martin's Press.