Sarah Bradford

For the American author and teacher, see Sarah Hopkins Bradford.

Sarah Mary Malet Bradford, Viscountess Bangor (née Hayes; born 3 September 1938^[1]) is an English author who is best known for her royal biographies.

Sarah Bradford
Born	Sarah Mary Hayes (1938-09-03) 3 September 1938 (age 86) Bournemouth, Dorset, England
Nationality	English
Other names	Sarah Mary Malet Bradford
Education	St Mary's School, Shaftesbury, University of Oxford
Occupation	author
Known for	royal biographies
Spouses	Anthony Bradford ​ (divorced)​ William Maxwell David Ward ​ ​ (m. 1976)​
Father	Brigadier Hilary Anthony Hayes OBE

Early life and education

Bradford was born in Bournemouth in 1938, the daughter of Brigadier Hilary Anthony Hayes DSO OBE.^[2][3] She was educated at St Mary's School, Shaftesbury, Dorset. She won a State scholarship to Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, but met Anthony Bradford, a real estate developer, at Oxford, and abandoned her degree to marry him.^[3] The couple lived in Barbados, Lisbon, and Sardinia; they had two children, but divorced.

Sarah Bradford then worked for the manuscript department of the auctioneer Christie's in London, 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.^[3] 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.^[3]

Biographies

• Cesare Borgia (1976)
• The Borgias (with John Prebble) (1981)
• Disraeli (1982)
• Princess Grace (1984)
• George VI, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1989, ISBN 0-297-79667-4
• 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, 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^[4]
• Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy, Viking, 2004, ISBN 0-670-03353-7
• Diana, Penguin Group, London, 2006, ISBN 978-0-670-91678-8; according to WorldCat, the book is in over 890 libraries^[5]
• Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Our Times, Penguin, London, 2011, ISBN 978-0-670-91911-6

Other books

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