Stephen Bates is a British non-fiction writer and journalist known for his work on British history, religion, and the monarchy. He is best known for investigative historical studies, including The Man Who Sold Honours (2025) and Royalty Inc. (2015). He was named British Religion Writer of the Year in both 2005 and 2006.
Stephen Bates was educated at New College, Oxford, where he studied Modern History. His academic background informed a career focused on political history, religion, and institutional power. After graduating, he entered journalism and worked continuously in the profession for more than three decades.
Bates spent thirty-six years as a journalist before moving fully into freelance writing. He worked for the BBC, the Daily Telegraph, and the Daily Mail before joining The Guardian. He remained at The Guardian for twenty-two years. During this period, he served as religious affairs correspondent and later as royal correspondent. His reporting took him to more than forty countries.
Alongside newspaper reporting, Bates became a regular broadcaster. He contributed to television and radio programmes in the United Kingdom. He also wrote for a wide range of publications, including the Spectator, New Statesman, Time magazine, History Today, BBC History Magazine, the Tablet, and the Church Times. His work also appeared in international outlets.
Bates began publishing books alongside his journalism. His non-fiction writing focuses on British political life, monarchy, religion, and nineteenth-century history. His books include A Church at War (2004), which examined Anglican debates on homosexuality, God’s Own Country (2007), on religion and politics in the United States, and Asquith (2008), a biography of the Edwardian prime minister.
He later published 1815: Regency Britain in the Year of Waterloo (2014) and Penny Loaves and Butter Cheap (2014), a social history of Britain during the period of industrial change. The Poisoner (2015) revisited a Victorian murder case.
In 2015, Bates published Royalty Inc.: Britain’s Best-Known Brand (2015). The book drew partly on his twelve years as The Guardian’s royal correspondent. It examined the modern monarchy as both a public institution and an economic entity, drawing on interviews and archival research.
His most recent book, The Man Who Sold Honours (2025), investigates the life of Maundy Gregory. The book examines the illegal sale of honours in post-First World War Britain. Bates reconstructs Gregory’s role as a political fixer and fundraiser during the Lloyd George era. The study explores corruption, political finance, and social ambition in the interwar years. It also considers Gregory’s prosecution under the Honours Act of 1925. The book places the scandal within a longer tradition of political patronage.
Stephen Bates is married and has three adult children. He lives on the Kent coast.
Photo credit: www.stephenbateswriter.com
Stephen Bates was educated at New College, Oxford, where he studied Modern History. His academic background informed a career focused on political history, religion, and institutional power. After graduating, he entered journalism and worked continuously in the profession for more than three decades.
Bates spent thirty-six years as a journalist before moving fully into freelance writing. He worked for the BBC, the Daily Telegraph, and the Daily Mail before joining The Guardian. He remained at The Guardian for twenty-two years. During this period, he served as religious affairs correspondent and later as royal correspondent. His reporting took him to more than forty countries.
Alongside newspaper reporting, Bates became a regular broadcaster. He contributed to television and radio programmes in the United Kingdom. He also wrote for a wide range of publications, including the Spectator, New Statesman, Time magazine, History Today, BBC History Magazine, the Tablet, and the Church Times. His work also appeared in international outlets.
Bates began publishing books alongside his journalism. His non-fiction writing focuses on British political life, monarchy, religion, and nineteenth-century history. His books include A Church at War (2004), which examined Anglican debates on homosexuality, God’s Own Country (2007), on religion and politics in the United States, and Asquith (2008), a biography of the Edwardian prime minister.
He later published 1815: Regency Britain in the Year of Waterloo (2014) and Penny Loaves and Butter Cheap (2014), a social history of Britain during the period of industrial change. The Poisoner (2015) revisited a Victorian murder case.
In 2015, Bates published Royalty Inc.: Britain’s Best-Known Brand (2015). The book drew partly on his twelve years as The Guardian’s royal correspondent. It examined the modern monarchy as both a public institution and an economic entity, drawing on interviews and archival research.
His most recent book, The Man Who Sold Honours (2025), investigates the life of Maundy Gregory. The book examines the illegal sale of honours in post-First World War Britain. Bates reconstructs Gregory’s role as a political fixer and fundraiser during the Lloyd George era. The study explores corruption, political finance, and social ambition in the interwar years. It also considers Gregory’s prosecution under the Honours Act of 1925. The book places the scandal within a longer tradition of political patronage.
Stephen Bates is married and has three adult children. He lives on the Kent coast.
Photo credit: www.stephenbateswriter.com
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