Hugo Vickers is well known as a biographer, lecturer, broadcaster and obituarist, and is an acknowledged expert on the Royal Family.
His first book was about Gladys Deacon, Duchess of Marlborough (1881-1977), in whom he became interested when he was 16 years old. When he was 23, he found the Duchess in the psychogeriatric ward of a mental hospital and talked to her for two years until her death at the age of 96. He researched in Europe and America and published Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough in 1979. Because there was considerably more material available 40 years on, he revised this book for a new edition, entitled The Sphinx, published in 2020 with a series of enthusiastic reviews.
He is called upon to comment on important state occasions, and at times when the Royal Family are in the news. He has covered events from the first wedding of the Prince of Wales, the funeral of Diana, and the Queen Mother, and the recent royal weddings. The Financial Times described him in 2018 as: ‘the most knowledgeable royal biographer on the planet.’
He has written many biographies of 20th century figures, including Cecil Beaton, Vivien Leigh, the Duchess of Windsor, Princess Andrew of Greece, and the Queen Mother.
When not writing, he travels through the Commonwealth and Overseas Territories, establishing Commonwealth Walkways, and as such has visited many countries from Australia, New Zealand and Canada, to the Cook Islands, the Falklands and, as he puts it, was once obliged to spend seven weeks touring the Caribbean.
He is a Deputy Lieutenant for Berkshire and Captain of the Lay Stewards of St George’s Chapel, having now served as a Lay Steward for nearly 50 years.
He lives in London and Wiltshire and has three grown-up children.