Sarah, Duchess of York I DARED to DREAM

As she embarks on a new career as a novelist, aged 61, Sarah, Duchess of York talks candidly about the traumas and triumphs of her tumultuous life.

- JULIET RIEDEN

Fifteen years ago, while researching her ancestry, Sarah Ferguson stumbled upon a distant relative she just had to get to know. Her name was Margaret – Sarah’s middle name– she had flaming red hair and a refreshingly feisty disposition. As she delved more into the archives, the Duchess of York felt an uncanny affinity with this woman – actually her great-great-aunt, daughter of the very aristocratic Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch who mingled with the court of Queen Victoria, and was evidently quite a live wire.

But the records proved scant and could only tell her so much, which is where Sarah’s fertile imagination and passion for storytelling kicked in. Her Heart for a Compass is the result, the Duchess’s first attempt at novel writing which is being published out of the Mills & Boon stable. It’s a sweeping saga about family rifts, female empowerment, finding a new life away from the stuffiness of the court in the brave new world of America’s Gilded Age and the power of love. Sound familiar?