I'm writing this on March 1 2013, and the first two months of the year have already seen a lot of activity. For a start, there was the confirmation that the bones in the Leicester car park really are those of Richard III. I spoke on this for Sky News, and the BBC World Service, besides posting articles online with Medieval Archives and medievalists.net. I've also had my say on air about a few of the more recent royal scandals - and written for the Daily Telegraph about the whole 'season of scandals' seen fifty years ago, in spring 1963.
But more importantly - at least from my point of view! - my book Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the War of the Roses has just come out in paperback in the UK, and in hardback in the US; while Fabulous Frocks, the book on great dresses I wrote with Jane Eastoe, has just been reissued with some wonderful new pictures to bring it up to date.
Biog
After leaving Oxford, Sarah Gristwood began work as a journalist, writing at first about the theatre as well as general features on everything from gun control to Giorgio Armani. But increasingly she found herself specialising in film interviews - Johnny Depp and Robert De Niro; Martin Scorsese and Paul McCartney. She has appeared in most of the UK's leading newspapers - The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph (Daily and Sunday) - and magazines from Cosmopolitan to Country Living and Sight and Sound to The New Statesman.
Turning to history she wrote two bestselling Tudor biographies, Arbella: England’s Lost Queen and Elizabeth and Leicester; and the eighteenth century story Perdita: Royal Mistress, Writer, Romantic which was selected as Radio 4 Book of the Week. Presenting and contributing to several radio and tv documentaries, she also published a book on iconic dresses, Fabulous Frocks (with Jane Eastoe); and a 50th anniversary companion to the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, as well as collaborating with Tracy Borman, Alison Weir and Kate Williams on The Ring and the Crown (Hutchinson), a book on the history of royal weddings. 2011 also saw the publication of her first historical novel, The Girl in the Mirror (HarperCollins). In September 2012 she brought out a new non-fiction book - Blood Sisters: the hidden lives of the women behind the Wars of the Roses (HarperPress).
A regular media commentator on royal and historical affairs, Sarah was one of the team providing Radio 4's live coverage of the royal wedding; and also spoke on the Queen's Jubilee for Sky News and for Woman's Hour. She and her husband, the film critic Derek Malcolm, live in London and Kent.