Early life and education

Ian Bradley was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire on Whit Sunday 1950. He grew up in the southeast of England and was educated at Tonbridge School and New College, Oxford, from which he graduated with a first-class honours degree in modern history. He remained at University of Oxford to complete a doctoral thesis on religion and politics in early nineteenth-century Britain, earning his DPhil degree.

Career

Bradley subsequently worked in radio and television production with the BBC. He spent five years on the staff of The Times (and was a features writer for The Times for eight years) and then combined freelance writing with teaching at Cranleigh School in Surrey. Following further study at the University of St Andrews, from which he graduated with a first-class honours BD degree in theology, Bradley was ordained into the ministry of the Church of Scotland and appointed Head of Religious Broadcasting for BBC Scotland. He has lived in Scotland since 1985. He sat on the committee that drafted the Church of Scotland's Hymnary , 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.

Having lectured on Church History at the University of Aberdeen for many years, Bradley is currently Reader in Church History and Practical Theology at the School of Divinity, University of St Andrews, where he is based at St Mary's College. He is also associate minister of Holy Trinity Church, St. Andrews, and honorary Church of Scotland chaplain for the university.

As a journalist, Bradley contributes frequently to The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Tablet and Life and Work as well as often appearing on television and BBC Radio 4. Bradley has frequently writes and broadcasts and lectures about Gilbert and Sullivan and has spoken numerous times at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England. He performs regularly with the University of St. Andrews Gilbert and Sullivan Society, of which he is honorary life president. He is the author of over 30 books. He is married and has two children.