Sarah Dunant studied history at Newnham College, Cambridge from where she went on to become a writer, broadcaster, teacher and critic. She has written twelve novels, four of which have been shortlisted for awards, and edited two books of essays. She worked for many years for the BBC in radio and television including BBC 2 TV’s arts programme The Late Show and Radio 3’s Nightwaves.

More recently she wrote and presented a monthly history show for Radio 4 When Greeks Flew Kites and is a regular contributor to A Point of View. She also featured as an expert in the BBC2 Renaissance: the Blood and the Beauty drama-documentary series which broadcast in December 2024.

She is an accredited lecturer with The Arts Society, lecturing on Italian history and Renaissance art, has taught Renaissance studies at Washington University, St. Louis and creative writing at University of Oxford Brookes, from where she was awarded an honorary doctorate for her services to higher education and literature.

Her most recent five novels, set within the Italian Renaissance and weaving cutting-edge historical scholarship into fiction, have become international bestsellers, translated into thirty languages.