Non-Fiction
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Up the Tube: Prime-Time TV in the Silverman Years, Like It or Not | 1981 | Buy |
| In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting | 1990 | Buy |
| Reflected Glory: The Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman | 1996 | Buy |
| Diana in Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess | 1999 | Buy |
| Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House | 2006 | Buy |
| For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years | 2007 | Buy |
| Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch | 2012 | Buy |
| Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life | 2017 | Buy |
| George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy | 2023 | Buy |
Sally Bedell Smith built her reputation as a biographer with long, carefully researched books about people at the center of power. Her subjects range from William S. Paley, who shaped American broadcasting in the twentieth century, to multiple members of the British royal family. Her 2012 biography of Queen Elizabeth II, Elizabeth the Queen, drew on interviews with palace insiders and is widely regarded as one of the more balanced and thorough accounts of the monarch’s life and reign.
Smith’s approach is rooted in journalism, and her books read as reported works rather than academic histories. She gains access that most biographers cannot and uses it to reconstruct private conversations and behind-the-scenes moments with unusual specificity. Her 2023 book George VI and Elizabeth extends her royal coverage back to the wartime generation, completing a body of work that traces the modern British monarchy across several decades.