Sarah Hiscox – Wiki Biography of the Famous British Artist

Sarah Hiscox is a London-based British artist and writer. She is known both for her art (small-scale ink-and-gold icons) and for her written story of recovery, as well as for her entrepreneurial flair in the beauty/fashion world. Hiscox was born around 1967 or 1968. Her exact birth date is not publicly known, but profiles in The Times and The Telegraph in June 2026 said she is 58 years old.

Icons as Drawn Prayers

One of Hiscox’s passions is traditional icon painting – an ancient Christian art form. In interviews, she often emphasises the spiritual quality of her work. As one profile notes, Hiscox “describes an icon as a drawn prayer,” with each stage of painting (from grinding natural pigments to applying gold leaf) treated as a ritual. In fact, a Behance portfolio (2014) explicitly calls her a “London-based Russian Byzantine icon painter”. In practice, she painstakingly paints on gessoed wooden panels, layering fine ink lines and gleaming gold leaf – literally following time-honoured Byzantine icon techniques. One art writer described her output as following “the strict traditions of icon painting,” producing quiet, meditative images that Hiscox herself calls “drawn prayers”.

She has also studied iconography under a master. For example, she learned directly from British iconographer Irina Bradley, a noted Russian-style icon painter. In fact, a close family friend – Sir Richard Temple, a well-known icon dealer – initially steered her toward the art. By 2017, her practice was recognized enough to be shown publicly: the Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery in London hosted a group exhibition (Oct 11–21, 2017) of her work alongside two other artists. In that show, curators pointed out that Hiscox “paints in the Russian Byzantine tradition,” combining her ink drawings with gold leaf on handmade gessoed panel.

Her Entrepreneurial Flair

Alongside her art, Sarah Hiscox built a career in fashion and beauty. She spent over 25 years in the fashion industry, working as a stylist and color consultant. In 2016, she and business partner Willa Burton launched The Braid Bar, a mobile salon focused on hair braiding. The idea reportedly came when Sarah’s young daughter wanted a braid, but no London salon offered braiding services – so Hiscox decided to fill the gap herself. The Braid Bar became “the leading hair braiding business in the UK,” even securing a pop-up location at Selfridges and partnerships with brands like Pandora and Sephora.

In 2015, she and Willa also published The Braid Book: 20 Fun and Easy Styles (Chicago Review Press, 2016). This how-to book became well-known in the hair-and-beauty world; its introduction explains that the authors are “founders of London’s hip The Braid Bar”. That same year, a LinkedIn article on female entrepreneurship specifically noted Sarah by name as “Sarah Hiscox, founder of The Braid Bar”, speaking at a Manchester business event. Even publisher profiles mention that she and Burton remain “partner-owners” of the Braid Bar, and highlight her styling credentials. In sum, Hiscox parlayed her fashion experience into a trendy, service-based business – a sharp contrast to the medieval influence of her icon painting.

Battling Demons: From Addiction to Memoir

The most remarkable chapter in Hiscox’s life is her personal struggle with addiction and her journey to recovery – the subject of her upcoming book. According to promotional summaries (Duckworth Books) for her memoir The Beginning and End of Everything, Sarah’s troubles began very young. She writes that “addiction issues began in childhood” when she was given strong sleeping pills for nightmares. Later, as a young wife and mother, a “toxic relationship with food” escalated into heroin dependency. Over the years, she cycled through multiple relapses and new attempts at recovery. One synopsis notes that “after years of cycling through relapse … [she] was confronted with herself and all that she’d lost” in rehab.

Her journey was harrowing: in interviews and media accounts, Hiscox admits she lost her marriage, her home, and custody of her two children at the height of her addiction. Notably, her close friend of nearly 40 years, TV presenter Davina McCall, has publicly said that Sarah locked her in a car to help her get into rehab – a key moment in McCall’s own sobriety story. These events – losing her family and then fighting to regain it – are what the memoir centres on. As YMU Literary (her agency) puts it, the book “charts her experiences of becoming a mother and an addict … and her fight back from addiction to become a mother again”. The upcoming July 2026 publication has been described as “a love story and addiction memoir”, complete with a foreword by Davina McCall.

The tone of her story is ultimately one of hope. Advance endorsements emphasize the “redemptive power of self-acceptance, friendship and love” in her narrative. For example, former X-Files star Gillian Anderson calls it “an inspiring must-read” for anyone facing darkness. Celebrity makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury praises it as “the ultimate story of hope, self-belief and the magic of love”, noting that the book made her “laugh and cry” in equal measure. These blurbs underscore how Hiscox’s once-private ordeal is now public – an emblematic modern comeback tale.

Career Highlights

Her life suggests that reinvention is possible. As she herself has said in interviews, each icon she paints is a form of hope—a prayer for the future. And her memoir’s very title, The Beginning and End of Everything, hints that even rock bottom can be a new beginning.