Fabulously flamboyant, from her inimitable pink frocks to eyes so thick with mascara that the late Clive James compared them to “two crows that had crashed into a chalk-cliff,” Dame Barbara Cartland was unforgettable.

Dubbed the Queen of Romance, for her prolific repertoire of 723 romantic novels, the centenary this year of the 1925 publication of her first tome, Jig-Saw, is being celebrated with a special exhibition.

Yet, her granddaughter Tara Parker says her kooky, over-the-top image belied a razor sharp political mind – proving you should never judge a book by its cover.

Tara, who loaned many of her gran’s items to Hertford Museum, for The Art of Romance exhibition, in celebration of Dame Barbara, says: “There has been a stereotype created, but actually it couldn’t be further from the truth. She would use her voice as a famous celebrity to help other people. “

To mark the centenary, which coincides with the 25th anniversary of her death, aged 98, in May 2000, Jig-Saw – which she wrote in 1920 when she was 19, about Mona, a young woman who throws herself into London’s high society and succumbs to its various temptations, including the opposite sex – will be re-released this year.

Described as “Mayfair with the lid off” it was a thinly disguised autobiography of her life, thus far, as Birmingham-born Dame Barbara had moved to London to seek her fortune – and some fun along the way.

Priced at seven shillings and sixpence, the book was critically praised as a “promising first novel” – but no one could have guessed it would be the first of 723!

Curator of The Art of Romance exhibition, Kathryn Saunders, tells the Mirror: “Dame Barbara started off her writing by going to parties and writing about it and had a column writing about society in her early twenties.”

She soon married to publishing heir Alexander McCorquodale and gave birth to daughter Raine in 1929, who went on to give her a taste of true royalty by marrying the Earl of Spencer and becoming stepmother to the future Princess Diana – who famously disliked her and dubbed her “Acid Raine.

Meanwhile, as Dame Barbara’s profile as a writer grew, she used her position for the greater good.

Kathryn adds: “A lot has been said about Dame Barbara’s anti-feminist views. In the seventies, she said she opposed the feminist movement because ‘all women really want is the protection of marriage.’ She was also anti-all things unfeminine but, to me, in her actions she should be viewed as a feminist – an unlikely one and one who would not agree with that label.

“But she was one of the early career women – earning money as a gossip columnist and then a writer.

“On average, she wrote one novel each fortnight, dictating the stories to her secretary. She also built up a successful business selling her own range of products. “

This included an interior design range for American store Macy’s and the exhibition has a book of her fabric swatches.

As well as that, in her free time, she was concerned with improving conditions for women.

The Art of Romance is showing a 1930 film of Dame Barbara, in which she reveals how a man she met at a dinner party told her men were better drivers than women. Standing at the end of a row of women in racing overalls, she says on camera that she has gathered nine women who can drive “very well indeed” and who would race for “I believe, and hope, a good prize.”

A year later, she organised a ladies’ race – inviting news crews to the event – where nine women drove MG Midgets, to show that women could drive just as well as men.

She was also an accomplished pilot and, at the age of 30, she devoted time to looking for a way to make gliders travel further. In 1931, she invented the first aeroplane-towed glider with two RAF officers and made a record-breaking flight of 200 miles.

Then, during World War Two, Dame Barbara took a mobile library around to army officers and put together a wedding dress lending facility.

Tara, whose father was Barbara’s eldest son Ian McCorquodale, says: “She realised, because of rationing, women couldn’t get married in white as there wasn’t enough cloth.

“She bought some second-hand dresses and by the end she was lending out about 1,000 items. “

Museum curator Kathryn, who says exhibits include some of the Queen of Romance’s frocks, hats and shoes, adds: “Into the forties, when she was a very famous novelist, she joined St John’s Ambulance as a volunteer worker. One of my favourite pieces in the exhibition is her St John’s Ambulance uniform. It just shows how there was so much more to her than an obsession with pink. She was a remarkable woman.”

In the 1960s, Dame Barbara founded and was president of the National Association of Health, and advocated for organic foods, homeopathy, and acupuncture.

She was elected as a Conservative councillor for Hertfordshire County Council in 1955. And one of her proudest achievements was getting the law changed so that the Romany community could have a fixed abode and their children could go to school.

Kathryn reveals: ” She created a permanent site for travellers, which still exists today, near Hatfield. They actually named it Barbara Ville, so that’s a nice lasting legacy.”

Close to her children, after she divorced Raine’s father Alexander, Dame Barbara married her ex-husband’s cousin, Hugh McCorquodale, in 1936, and had sons Ian and Glen.

Raine appeared on Barbara’s book Look Lovely Be Lovely, her guide to beauty which features in the show.

Kathryn and fellow curator Sara Taylor collected all the items from Dame Barbara’s Camfield Place estate in Essendon,. where she wrote her romantic, but never raunchy stories, and lived in splendour.

Awarded a Damehood in 1991, she thought it was vulgar to write about sex in lurid terms. For her, it was all about the romance.

“If you read newspapers today,” she said, “you see things that our mothers and grandmothers would have been shocked and ashamed to read. It is sex, sex, sex all the time, and it is not what we want.”

Instead, Dame Barbara ramped up the romance.

Kathryn adds: ” We have the very recognisable cover artwork, the beautiful illustrations of a man and woman as created by Francis Marshall – a renowned artist who illustrated many of her books in all sorts of different scenarios.”

Kathryn’s own favourite novel is one incorporating the author’s favourite animals.

“I like The Prince and the Pekingnese, Dame Barbara was always pictured with her Pekingese dogs – she loved them, so it’s fun to see her incorporate her favourite pet in this classic romance story,” she says.

“I also really enjoyed her book on etiquette. There are lots of great tips such as getting rid of guests who have outstayed their welcome. When that happens, her husband would make a point of emptying the ashtrays into the fireplace.”

And Kathyn has relished the opportunity to tell the hidden story, through the exhibition, of the Queen of Romance.

She says: “Yes there were a lot of pinks and frills but Barbara was so much more. She was a subject of This Is Your Life big red book twice. It’s just one indication of how much Dame Barbara accomplished.”

Barbara Cartland: The Art of Romance runs until June 1 at Hertford Museum.

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