The Write Stuff - Danielle Steel

"Writers don't need love - all they require is money," said playwright John Osbourne. But these authors seem to have plenty of both.

Danielle Steel - £25 million

Critics regularly pan her, giving tepid reviews to what they cal the formulaic themes in her romance novels, which feature strong but glamorous women who overcome major obstacles to secure a career - but Danielle Steel's fans keep her sales figures astonishingly healthy. The New York born author has written 55 novels, sold 480 million books in 42 countries and 21of her novels have been made into TV movies - making her very, very wealthy.

At least one of her books was on the New York Times best seller list for 381 weeks, earning her an entry into the Guinness Book of Records.

Steel certainly knows how to work, often working on five books and several movies at once - researching one storyline, writing another and editing a third. She often spends two to three years researching and developing a single project and, in the heat of a first draft, it's not uncommon for her to spend 18 to 20 hours a day at her typewriter.

Steel says that she leads a "quiet family life" and spends most of her time writing.