Sarah Mary Malet Bradford, Viscountess Bangor (''née'' Hayes; born 3 September 1938) is an English author who is best known for her royal biographies.

Early life and education

Bradford was born in

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

in 1938, the daughter of Brigadier Hilary Anthony Hayes . She was educated at

St Mary's School, Shaftesbury St Mary's School was a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private Roman Catholic day and boarding school for girls, founded in 1945 in a rural setting near Shaftesbury, England. The school had a sixth form and was a member of the Girls' Scho ...

, Dorset. She won a State scholarship to Lady Margaret Hall,

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, but met Anthony Bradford, a real estate developer, at Oxford, and abandoned her degree to marry him. The couple lived in

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, and

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

; they had two children, but divorced. Sarah Bradford then worked for the manuscript department of the auctioneer

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, where she met her second husband, William Maxwell David Ward, Viscount Bangor; the two married in 1976.

Writing career

Her first book, ''The Englishman's Wine'', was written while she lived in Portugal. She has published more than a dozen books. Her husband became 8th Viscount Bangor in 1993. The couple live in London. Bradford was interviewed in connection with the 1994 edition of the PBS video ''The Windsors: A Royal Family'', with the 2007 BBC documentary ''Gladstone and Disraeli'', and assisted with screenwriting for '' The Borgias'', a 2011 television series. In 2012, she was working on a biography of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

Biographies

* ''Cesare Borgia'' (1976) * ''The Borgias'' (with John Prebble) (1981) * ''Disraeli'' (1982) * ''Princess Grace'' (1984) * ''George VI'', Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1989, * ''The Reluctant King'' (American version of ''George VI'') * '' Sacheverell Sitwell. Splendours and Miseries'' (1993) * ''Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain's Queen'' (1996); according to

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

, the book is in over 1760 libraries * ''America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis'' (2000); according to WorldCat, the book is in over 1650 libraries * ''Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy'', Viking, 2004, * ''Diana'', Penguin Group, London, 2006, ; according to WorldCat, the book is in over 890 libraries * ''Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Our Times'', Penguin, London, 2011,

Other books

* ''The Englishman's Wine: The Story of Port'' (1969) * ''Portugal and Madeira'' (1969) * ''Portugal'' (1973)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bradford, Sarah 1938 births Living people Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford 20th-century English biographers 20th-century English historians 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English biographers 21st-century English historians 21st-century English women writers English women biographers English women historians People educated at St Mary's School, Shaftesbury Writers from Bournemouth