Sarah Sands
{{short description|British journalist and author (born 1961)}}
{{for|the baseball player|Sarah Jane Sands}}
{{Lead too short|date=September 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sarah Sands
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name = Sarah Harvey
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1961|05|03|df=y}}
| birth_place = Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England
| death_date =
| death_place =
| death_cause =
| other_names =
| spouse = {{marriage|Julian Sands|1984|1987|end=divorced}}
Kim Fletcher
| children = 3
| family = Kit Hesketh-Harvey (brother)
| known_for = Editor, BBC Radio 4 Today (May 2017 – Sept. 2020)
Editor, London Evening Standard (March 2012 – May 2017)
Deputy Editor, London Evening Standard (Feb. 2009 – Mar. 2012)
Editor-in-Chief, Reader's Digest (Feb. 2008 – Feb. 2009)
Consultant Editor, Daily Mail (Apr. 2006 – Feb. 2008)
Editor, The Sunday Telegraph
(Jun. 2005 – Mar. 2006)
Deputy Editor, The Daily Telegraph (1996–2005)
| alma mater = Goldsmiths College, University of London
| employer = BBC
| occupation = {{hlist|Journalist|editor|novelist}}
}}
Sarah Sands (née Harvey; born 3 May 1961) is a British journalist and author. A former editor of the London Evening Standard, she was editor of Today on BBC Radio 4 from 2017 to 2020.
Early life and education
Sands was born in Cambridge, in 1961, to parents in the overseas civil service. Sands is the younger sister of Kit Hesketh-Harvey, of musical duo Kit and The Widow. She was educated at Kent College in Pembury, on the outskirts of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, then a Methodist, now interdenominational, boarding and day independent school for girls. She later attended Goldsmiths, University of London.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/mar/07/sundaytelegraph.pressandpublishing |title=Sinking Sands |last=Day |first=Julia |newspaper=The Guardian |date=7 March 2006 |accessdate=17 March 2018}}
Career
Sands trained on The Sevenoaks Chronicle as a news reporter, before moving to the Evening Standard, initially as editor of the Londoner's Diary, before taking further posts as features editor and associate editor. She joined The Daily Telegraph in 1996 as deputy editor, under Charles Moore, later assuming responsibility for the Saturday edition.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/feb/05/sarah-sands-new-boss-bbc-radio-4-today-evening-standard |title=Sarah Sands: lively new boss of the BBC's breakfast club |last=Anthony |first=Andrew |newspaper=The Observer |date=5 February 2017 |accessdate=17 March 2018}}{{cite web|title=person – Sarah Sands|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp83305/sarah-sands|website=National Portrait Gallery|accessdate=4 May 2016}}
Sands was appointed editor of The Sunday Telegraph in June 2005, succeeding Dominic Lawson.{{cite news |url=http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article308532.ece |title=Something very lovely will happen at the Telegraph |newspaper=The Independent |date=28 August 2005 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930181538/http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article308532.ece |archivedate=30 September 2007}} She was the first woman to hold the post. Her plan for the paper's November 2005 relaunch was that it should be "like an iPod – full of your favourite things".[https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/jun/20/sundaytelegraph.pressandpublishing "I want the paper to be like your iPod"], The Guardian, 20 June 2005 However, the makeover was not well regarded by senior management, and in an abrupt move, after just eight months and 20 days in post, Sands was sacked as editor of the newspaper on 7 March 2006 by Andrew Neil and replaced by Patience Wheatcroft.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/jul/28/sundaytelegraph.pressandpublishing |title=My Sunday Telegraph plans 'strangled at birth', says Sands |last=Brook |first=Stephen |newspaper=The Guardian |date=28 July 2006 |accessdate=17 March 2018}}[http://www.newstatesman.com/200603130007 "The media column – Peter Wilby bids farewell to Sarah Sands"], New Statesman, 13 March 2006 Subsequently, many of her changes under her editorship were reversed (including changes to the title font).
In April 2006, Sands was appointed consultant editor on the Daily Mail.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/feb/21/pressandpublishing.sundaytelegraph |title=Sarah Sands joins Reader's Digest |last=Sweney |first=Mark |newspaper=The Guardian |date=21 February 2008 |accessdate=17 March 2018}}
In February 2008 she was appointed editor-in-chief of the UK edition of Reader's Digest. In February 2009 it was announced that she would be taking up the role of deputy editor on London Evening Standard.Mark Sweney [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/feb/20/sarah-sands-london-evening-standard "Sarah Sands named deputy editor of London Evening Standard"], The Guardian, 20 February 2009 She became editor of the London Evening Standard following Geordie Greig's departure for The Mail on Sunday in March 2012.{{cite web|title=Sarah Sands is new editor of London Evening Standard|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/mar/30/sarah-sands-editor-evening-standard|work=The Guardian|accessdate=31 March 2012|date=30 March 2012}}
In January 2017, she was appointed editor of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme and took up her appointment later in the year.{{cite news|last=Grierson|first=Jamie|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jan/30/sarah-sands-named-editor-bbc-radio-4-today-programme-evening-standard|title=Sarah Sands named editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme|work=The Guardian|date=30 January 2017|accessdate=30 January 2017}} Sands resigned from the post in late January 2020, the day after major cuts to BBC News were announced.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/30/sarah-sands-resigns-as-today-programme-editor-bbc-cuts|title=Sarah Sands resigns as Today programme editor|work=The Guardian|date=30 January 2020|access-date=30 January 2020}}
Sands was the Chair of the G7 gender equality advisory council in 2021 and was invited back to sit on the council in 2022, 2023 and 2024. She was the former Deputy Chair of the British Council and acting Chair in 2023. She is a Trustee of the Science Museum, Bletchley Park and John Innes Centre research institute in Norwich and sits on the board of the Berkeley Group and Channel 4. She is a Partner at Hawthorn Advisors and on the board of Walpole. She is an ambassador for Global Partnership for Education, an Associate at the IWM, former Trustee of Index on Censorship and co-founded the Braemar Summit in 2021.
Sands is an honorary fellow of Goldsmiths College, University of London, Lucy Cavendish College Cambridge and a visiting fellow to the Reuters Institute. She has written four novels: her most recent books are The Hedgehog Diaries (2023) and The Interior Silence: 10 Lessons from Monastic Life (2021).
Personal life
Sands's first marriage was to the actor Julian Sands, with whom she had a son; the couple divorced in 1987.
Her second marriage was to Kim Fletcher, a former editorial director of the Telegraph group and editor of The Independent on Sunday, with whom she has two children.
References
{{Reflist}}
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{{succession box | before=Simon Heffer and Veronica Wadley | title=Deputy Editor of The Daily Telegraph| years=1995–2005| after=Neil Darbyshire and William Lewis }}
{{succession box | before=Dominic Lawson | title=Editor of The Sunday Telegraph| years=2005–2006| after=Patience Wheatcroft }}
{{succession box | before=Andrew Bordiss | title=Deputy Editor of the Evening Standard| years=2009–2012 | after=Ian Walker}}
{{s-bef|before=Geordie Greig}}
{{s-ttl|title=Editor of the Evening Standard|years=2012–2017}}
{{s-aft|after=George Osborne}}
{{succession box | before=Jamie Angus| title=Editor of Today| years=2017–2020| after=Owenna Griffiths}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sands, Sarah}}
Category:21st-century English novelists
Category:Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London
Category:British newspaper editors