Sarah Harkness graduated from Oxford University in 1983 and had a twenty year career in corporate finance in the City, but has always been fascinated by Victorian art and literature. She is married to Peter, a former journalist and publisher, and has three adult children and a small dog. She now lives in the Cotswolds, near to Chipping Campden, at one time the home of Nelly Erichsen. When she isn’t reading and writing she gardens and quilts – not terribly successfully but with enormous enthusiasm. Nelly Erichse was her first book and in June 2019 the book was nominated for the William MB Berger prize for British Art History. In December 2021, Sarah won the Tony Lothian Prize for an uncommissioned biography proposal. her book about the Macmillan Brothers, Literature for the People, was published by PanMacmillan in May 202.