Dr Sally Magnusson FRSE

Journalist, author and broadcaster, Freelance

Sally Magnusson is a journalist, novelist and broadcaster. After starting her career on The Scotsman and the Sunday Standard newspapers, she presented a host of TV and radio programmes, including Sixty Minutes, BBC Breakfast, Songs of Praise, Daily Politics and most recently Reporting Scotland, which she anchored until 2025. She has written a variety of non-fiction books including Where Memories Go, a Sunday Times best-selling account of her mother’s dementia, which has been credited with improving understanding of this widespread brain disease, and four novels, The Sealwoman’s Gift, The Ninth Child, Music in the Dark and The Shapeshifter’s Daughter. In 2013 she founded the music and dementia charity Playlist for Life, which advocates personally meaningful music as a means of bringing joy and connection to people with dementia. She has an MA in English Language and Literature from the University of Edinburgh, and honorary degrees from the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Glasgow Caledonian, as well as the Open University. She received an MBE in 2023 for services to people with dementia and their carers.

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