Sarah Harkness worked in corporate finance for twenty years, latterly as a partner at Arthur Andersen. She spent three years as Pro-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield and now chairs the audit committee of Orthopaedic Research UK. She holds an Honorary Doctorate from Sheffield University and an Honorary Fellowship at Mansfield College.

Her first book was a biography of Victorian artist and writer Nelly Erichsen. In October 2021 she was awarded an MA with Distinction in Biography at the University of Buckingham, studying under Professor Jane Ridley. Her 40,000 word dissertation covered five crucial years in the career of Alexander Macmillan. In 2021 she won the Tony Lothian Prize, awarded by The Biographers' Club for the best proposal for an uncommissioned biography.

Sarah is married with three adult children and lives in the Cotswolds.