Sarah Gristwood is an English journalist and author. [1] She was born in Kent, grew up in Dover [2] and educated at St Anne's College, Oxford. [1]
As a journalist she has written for a number of British papers, including The Times, The Guardian and the Telegraph. [3] She has written historical biographies as well as fiction, and has contributed to television documentaries. [3]
Gristwood's historical biography, Arbella: England's Lost Queen is about Lady Arbella Stuart, an English noblewoman who was considered a possible successor to Elizabeth I. In a review in The Times, Kevin Sharpe wrote, "Sarah Gristwood presents a powerful story of the dynastic insecurity of the Tudors and Stuarts, and of the vulnerability of Elizabeth and James to foreign and domestic intrigues." [4] Sarah Gristwood accepted the invitation of the Royal Stuart Society, on the occasion of the Quatercentenary of the death of Arbella, to give a Lecture with the title: Lady Arbella Stuart – England’s Lost Queen?
Her book, Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe, focuses on five queens: Catherine de Medici, Anne Boleyn, Mary I of England, Elizabeth I, and Mary, Queen of Scots. [5]
She has appeared in the movie Venice/Venice (1992), and as herself in the television series Stars of the Silver Screen (2011) and Discovering Fashion: The Designers (2015). [6]
Gristwood was married to the film critic Derek Malcolm from 1994 until his death in 2023. [7] [8]