Born in 1959 to actress Nanette Newman and writer, actor and director Bryan Forbes, Sarah Standing started her career in writing by winning a Vogue Young Writers competition at the age of fourteen. After six months working on Woman's Own, she spent the next five years freelancing, writing features for The Evening Standard, The Evening News, Ritz Magazine and presenting a weekly radio show for Radio London. In 1984 she married actor John Standing and moved to Los Angeles, taking a seven year writing sabbatical, whilst she gave birth and took care of three children in quick succession.


Moving back to London in 1991 she became a contributing editor at Tatler Magazine. In 2002 she began writing features for The Telegraph and had a weekly fashion column on Saturdays, following which she became Travel and Lifestyle editor at The Spectator.


Today she writes regular features for GQ, Woman and Home, The Times and the Daily Mail, and co-owns and runs the independent toy shop Starbags in Pimlico.