Sally Beauman was a renowned English author of fiction, who also published works under the pseudonym Vanessa James. She graduated from Girton College, Cambridge with a MA in English Literature. After graduation, she moved to the USA with her husband, Christopher Beauman, an economist. They lived in Washington DC and New York, and traveled extensively during their stay.
Beauman began her career as a journalist in America, joining the staff of the newly launched New York magazine, where she became associate editor. She continued to write for the magazine after her return to England. In 1970, she interviewed Alan Howard for the Telegraph Magazine in an article titled 'A Fellow of Most Excellent Fancy'. The following year, they met again, and eventually married in 2004. Beauman had one son, James, and one grandchild.
Beauman had a successful career as a journalist and critic, winning the Catherine Pakenham Award for her writing. She became the youngest-ever editor of Queen magazine (now Harper’s & Queen). She contributed to many leading newspapers and magazines in both the UK and the USA, including the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Times, Observer, Vogue, the New York Times, and the New Yorker. Before publishing her block-buster novel Destiny in 1987 under her real name, she wrote nine Mills & Boon romances under the pseudonym Vanessa James.
Beauman's article about Daphne du Maurier, commissioned by Tina Brown, and published in The New Yorker in November 1993, inspired her to write Rebecca de Winter’s version of events at Manderley. This idea eventually became the novel, Rebecca’s Tale. In 2000, she was one of the Whitbread Prize judges for the best novel category.