Ian Bradley

Bradley was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, on Whit Sunday 1950,[4] the first of two sons of civil servants William Ewart Bradley and Mary Campbell Tyre.[5] He grew up in the southeast of England and was educated at Tonbridge School and New College, Oxford, where he graduated with a "congratulatory first" in 1971 in modern history.[6] He remained at the University of Oxford to complete a doctoral thesis on religion and politics in early nineteenth-century Britain, earning his DPhil degree.[7] He stood as the Liberal candidate for Sevenoaks at the February 1974 general election, coming second place.[8]

After leaving Oxford, Bradley took up a post as a general trainee with the BBC.[6] He spent six years on the staff of The Times as a feature writer and leader writer.[6] He has lived in Scotland since 1986. Following further study at the University of St Andrews, from which he graduated with a first-class honours BD degree in theology in 1989,[9] Bradley was ordained to the ministry of the Church of Scotland in 1990, and served as Head of Religious Broadcasting for BBC Scotland between 1990 and 1993.[7]

Having lectured on church history at the University of Aberdeen for many years, Bradley was appointed to a position at the University of St Andrews in 1998, where he was later awarded a Chair in Cultural and Spiritual History in its School of Divinity, where he was previously Principal of St Mary's College, St Andrews. He retired in 2017. He was also associate minister of Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews, and honorary Church of Scotland chaplain for the university.[2] He sat on the committee that drafted the Church of Scotland's Hymnary (Fourth Edition), which was published in 2005. Bradley has taught in the areas of Christianity in contemporary Britain; hymnody, liturgy and worship; monarchy, church and state; and the theology of musical theatre. According to his profile in his 1997 book Abide with Me, he was one of the first lecturers to teach an honors course on hymnology at a British University.[10] In 2013, Bradley was appointed a Commissioner on the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life.[11]

As a journalist, Bradley has contributed to The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Tablet and Life and Work as well as often appearing on Songs of Praise and BBC Radio 4. In 2007, he was awarded a Prize for Outstanding Religious Broadcasting for his BBC Radio 4 documentary on the English hymnal.[6] Bradley frequently writes, broadcasts and lectures about Gilbert and Sullivan and is a regular speaker at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festivals in Buxton and Harrogate, England.

Bradley is the author of more than 35 books. He is married and has two children.[7]