| Tilly Bagshawe | |
| Birth Name: | Matilda Emily Mary Bagshawe |
| Birth Date: | 1973 6, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | London, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation: | Journalist, writer |
| Language: | English |
| Nationality: | British |
| Period: | 2005–present |
| Genre: | Chick-lit |
| Spouse: | Robin Nydes |
| Children: | 3 |
| Relatives: | Louise Mensch (sister) |
Matilda Emily Mary Bagshawe[1] [2] (born 12 June 1973) is a British freelance journalist and author. She is best known for her books in the vein of best-selling American author Sidney Sheldon, notably Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of the Game and Sidney Sheldon's After the Darkness.
Born on 12 June 1973 in Lambeth Hospital, London,[3] Bagshawe is one of three daughters born to Nicholas Wilfrid Bagshawe and his wife, Daphne Margaret (née Triggs).[4] Her father is from the Bagshawe family of Roman Catholic gentry. They originally hailed from Wormhill Hall, near Buxton, Derbyshire, and Oakes-in-Norton, near Sheffield.[5] [6] Her great-grandfather was the marine artist Joseph Ridgard Bagshawe, who was himself grandson of one of the 19th century's most renowned marine artists, Clarkson Stanfield, and a nephew of Edward Gilpin Bagshawe, Catholic Bishop of Nottingham. Her paternal grandmother, Mary Frideswide, was the daughter of Charles Robertson, a stockbroker and benefactor of St Philip's Priory, Begbroke and one of the co-founders of Westminster Cathedral. Her older sister is Louise Mensch, a chick lit author and former Conservative Member of Parliament. She has another sister and a brother.[7]
She was educated at Woldingham School, Surrey, and while there, she became pregnant. At seventeen, she was a single mother of a daughter, but she finished her studies and at the age of eighteen, she went up to St John's College, Cambridge, with her ten-month-old daughter in tow.
Married to Robin Nydes, a US businessman, she lives between homes in London and Los Angeles, with three children. Now a freelance journalist and novelist, Bagshawe is a regular contributor to The Sunday Times, Daily Mail and other British publications.