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.
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 greatgreat 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?
“People will spot some of the parallels between me and my heroine, my great-great aunt Lady Margaret Montagu Douglas Scott. She’s a redhead, she’s strong-willed and stands up for what she believes in, she makes a career in writing. I think inevitably all writers draw on their own experiences: I certainly did,” explains Sarah, who has been penning best-selling children’s books for more than 30 years but is a rookie novelist. “I’m so proud of this book and the fact that I have become a first-time novelist at the age of 61, and the fact that I’m feeling more authentically and confidently myself than ever is reflected in the end of Margaret’s story. But ultimately Her Heart for a Compass is a work of fiction, not an autobiography. It’s about a strong woman who strains against the confines of 1870s society, when women were so controlled. I hope the challenges Margaret faces will resonate with today’s readers.”
This project has engrossed Sarah during the COVID pandemic and also fed her passion for history. The former wife of Prince Andrew and mother of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie is already something of an authority on Queen Victoria, having co-written two histories on her life and conceived the hit 2009 movie The Young Victoria, on which she was also a producer. But this book shows how her own lineage has long been intertwined with the monarchy. Yes, Sarah’s blood is unquestionably true blue.
“The Buccleuch family are not my only ancestors in this book. The Seventh Viscount and Viscountess Powerscourt (Wingfield) who also feature are my great-great grandparents,” she explains in the Author’s Note.
“Bringing Lady Margaret to life, I have been transported in my imagination to Scotland, London, Ireland, and New York, learning so much about my ancestry and the history of each of these locations along the way ... It has been a relief to escape into Lady Margaret’s world and the huge cast of characters who share the book with her, some real, some wholly fictional.”
Sarah dedicates the book to her daughters, “my beautiful girls, who have all the strength and courage of Lady Margaret. They too have followed their hearts and live life on their own terms.” And while there’s no question we are in a glittering and long-lost world of society balls, debutantes and maidens whose hearts long to pound with unbridled passion, but more often race against the ticking clock of not being left on the shelf, there’s a contemporary depth to the Duchess’s neatly choreographed historical romance. In themes such as battling the sting of vicious gossip, refusing to conform to the status quo and being cast out from family and society to rely on your own business nous, you can’t help but glimpse echoes of Sarah Ferguson’s own life experience.
Lady Margaret is a feminist heroine but she battles with the idea of having to be a certain size and to look and behave in a certain way – struggles the Duchess understands only too well. “I battle daily with my mental health,” she admits. “My trigger point is what it has always been, which is allowing food to take over my life. It’s my go-to comfort thing when I’m feeling low or anxious and it has led to me struggling with my weight in the past. I have to be very mindful of that, and keep my relationship with food under control.”
In America Lady Margaret thrives, finally able to be independent and earn her own money, and as Meghan and Prince Harry settle into their new life in California, that theme of the United States as a class-free land of opportunity seems extremely pertinent. And let’s not forget that America was also a haven for the Duchess of York. “I rebuilt my life in the US after my divorce [from Prince Andrew in 1996] and I’ll always be grateful to the American people for the way they took me under their wing,” says Sarah who, like the Sussexes, opted to talk to TV chat show host Oprah Winfrey about the realities of royal life and the horrors of British media commentary in a revealing interview broadcast in 1996. “I think in the UK, there’s a tendency to build people up only to knock them down that you don’t see in the US. The media in the UK also love to paint people as a saint or a sinner – it always has to be one or the other, which isn’t the case in the US or indeed Australia,” adds Sarah.
I wonder if like her heroine, the Duchess felt cast out by her family. “No, I have never felt like an outsider or someone that has been ostracised in any way. When I married into the Royal Family, Prince Andrew and I had known each other since we were children,” she explains. “The hardest time for me was when I was a teenager and my parents separated, and my mother went to live in Argentina. I had to become very self-sufficient: I call it being your own island. I would retreat to that place in my imagination and allow creativity to take over: that’s why I’ve written so many children’s books. In my experience, being able to retreat into your
“If I have done one thing well in my life, it is to bring up two wonderful children.”
– Sarah, Duchess of York
imagination means you never feel particularly alone.”
Family heartache
Sarah was 12 when her mother Susan walked out of the family home, moving to Argentina to live with her lover, Hector Barrantes, the handsome polo player whom she went on to marry. Sarah and her elder sister Jane, who now lives in Australia but is very much the Duchess’s soulmate, were left in the care of their loving but devastated father Major Ronald Ferguson, who was deeply traumatised by the breakdown of his marriage. It was a time of heartache for the whole family.
“My mother disappearing from my life very suddenly when I was a young teenager had an enormous impact on my upbringing. I loved researching my ancestry for this book and getting to understand the traits that define my family. It’s certainly the case that certain personality types seem to have been passed down the generations. That process helped me to understand all the things that my mother had gone through in her own life and why she made the decisions she did,” explains Sarah, who as an adult has gained more perspective on her parents’ troubled relationship.
In her novel, Lady Margaret’s heart steers her actions, which feels like a deliberate message from Sarah to young women out there. Is it? “You’re right: the message that I hope comes across from the book is, ‘be yourself, be strong, act with integrity, do what you believe is right with kindness and goodness, don’t give in to peer pressure’. Margaret is certainly led by her heart: that’s why the book has the title it does. I think that message is particularly important now because girls and young women face all sorts of challenges that they haven’t before.
“Take the problems raised by social media for one: the cyberbullying, racism and trolling that we see online is just appalling. People say things to each other online that they wouldn’t dream of saying face-to-face. I think it’s time to face the fact that much of social media has become a sewer and it’s bad for mental health. I think we’ve had enough of anonymous hate-posting: if people want to be able to put their views out there online, they should have the courage to put their names to them rather than hiding behind aliases. It’s time for governments and social media companies to take action.”
In the eye of the current social media storm are Princes Harry and William, who recently reunited to unveil their memorial statue to their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Sarah and Diana were great friends and I wonder what she thinks of the statue, now on public display in Kensington Gardens. “What I will say about Diana is that she would have been so proud of her sons, their wives and her grandchildren. The statue brought unity and togetherness to the family and I’m glad that my loyal friend has been honoured in this way. I certainly want to see the statue when it’s possible.”
Despite troubles with the House of Windsor and her very pubic divorce, family is everything to Sarah, Duchess of York. She has resolutely stood by her ex-husband Prince Andrew through his infamous fall from grace following revelations regarding his close friendship with convicted paedophile the late Jeffrey Epstein. Indeed, the couple still share a home – the Royal Lodge just down the road from Windsor Castle and a stone’s throw from Frogmore Cottage, Prince Harry’s home where Princess Eugenie, her husband Jack Brooksbank and their baby son August currently live. It is a curious arrangement that baffles everyone except Sarah and Prince Andrew, who through thick and thin still share a powerful love.
Their eldest daughter Princess Beatrice’s baby with husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi is due any day now and Sarah can’t wait. When we last spoke in 2020 she was hopeful of grandchildren and now all her wishes have come true.
“I love being with my grandson August, and also my step-grandson Wolfie, who is five. I have such fun with both of them. August already reacts to me dressing up for him in colourful headbands and hats. When I say funny things or make funny movements, he laughs and laughs. I love the fact that my energy seems to make him happy. We can learn such a lot from the innocence of children,” she says.
“I’m so proud of how Eugenie and Jack have turned out to be such brilliant parents, and of course Beatrice and Edo are having a baby soon. I’m so proud of my two girls: they are brilliant, strong and clever. If I have done one thing well in my life, it is to bring up two wonderful children.
“Them having children of their own does change things: suddenly the relationship you have always had, they have with little children of their own, and of course, they put their families first which is right and proper. But so far it’s been a wholly positive thing for us. It’s definitely inspiring me to keep telling children’s stories on the YouTube channel I set up during the pandemic, Storytime with Fergie and Friends. I record one story a day and we’ve had over a million hits now, and we’re sending the stories out to children’s hospitals and schools around the world.
It brings me so much joy that I’ve decided to keep it going even when lockdown is lifted.”
With Her Heart for a Compass the Duchess of York says she has achieved another ambition – to write her family story and to become a novelist. “I’ve finally done it. It shows anything is possible if you set your mind to it. I hope readers take away the importance of being authentic to yourself, and realise they can dare to have dreams.”
Her Heart for a Compass by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, published by Mills & Boon, is on sale now.