EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: A surprising chapter in Fergie’s eventful life as she reveals a desire to open her own bookstore
Many of those who thought they would be invited to King Charles’s coronation have been stunned and emotionally bruised after learning that their gleeful assumptions were misguided.
But Sarah, Duchess of York – omitted from the guest list because she is reportedly still regarded as a ‘humiliation’ – is made of sterner material, as she beamed at the London Book Fair in Olympia on Tuesday afternoon.
Indeed, it’s clear that rather than shrinking into self-pity, Fergie has been spurred on to plan the next step in her colorful life story.
“I seriously want to open my own bookstore,” she tells me, adding that this newfound passion is underpinned by a desire to help others. ‘I really want to support the independent bookshop.’
Sarah, Duchess of York promotes her various novels and children’s books at a meet and greet session at the London Book Fair at Olympia on April 18, 2023 in London, England
Sarah, Duchess of York (left) promotes her books, with her illustrator, David Williams Press, at a meet and greet session at the London Book Fair at Olympia on April 18, 2023 in London
Sarah (left) says she would like to open her own bookstore and support the industry
Skeptics can be contemptuous. But maybe they should reconsider.
After all, few would have the resilience that 63-year-old Sarah Ferguson displayed after photos of her having her toes sucked – by Texas bachelor and “financial adviser” John Bryan – appeared in a national newspaper.
Over the next few years, racked by the huge debts she had built up, Fergie wrote her first book about Budgie the Helicopter. An ITV adaptation followed, as did spin-off product sales.
Very quickly she cleared her debts – estimated at more than £4 million.
Her authoring talents have since found wider expression, including Fergie’s Farm – inspired by her childhood at Dummer Down Farm in Hampshire – and, more recently, in covering Mills & Boon romances, such as Her Heart for a Compass.
Fergie assures me that she will continue to enter both the children’s and adult markets, explaining that in addition to a children’s book, she is releasing three new titles in her “young adult” series.
“They’re all about eating disorders and mental issues that I went through as a teenager,” she explains.
At this rate, her bookstore could be completely filled with her own titles. She certainly shouldn’t be struggling to find a strapping assistant. Who better than her ex-husband, Prince Andrew?
She says she writes young adult fiction about eating disorders and mental health issues
Two of the best-selling books written by Sarah, Duchess of York
During the horrors of the lockdown, he proved himself a formidable packer and stacker, helping her deliver supplies to NHS staff and cupcakes to a hospice near Royal Lodge, the home he and Fergie share in Windsor Great Park.
Let’s hope there’s one title she wouldn’t have in her bookstore: Prince Harry’s tacky memoir, Spare.