Sarah Montague, Lady Brooke is a British journalist, best known as one of the regular presenters of the BBC Radio 4 early morning current affairs programme, Today. After 18 years, she left the programme in April 2018 to take over the lead on the station's lunchtime news broadcast, The World at One.
Montague's first occupation was as a stockbroker for County NatWest and then a Eurobond dealer with NatWest Capital Markets in London. She then went into business in London with the owner of Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts.
Montague began her journalistic career with Channel Television in 1991. She joined Reuters in January 1995 and then worked for Sky News in January 1996.
She joined the BBC during October 1997 and presented Newsnight and BBC News, before joining the Today news programme on BBC Radio 4 in business correspondent 2002. She presented the very first programme on BBC News 24 with Gavin Esler on 9 November 1997. She has also presented HARDtalk on BBC News. In December 2008, she hosted BBC World's Nobel Minds in the library of the Royal Palace, Stockholm. The 2008 Nobel Prize winners in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Economics, and Literature had a round-table discussion on issues of global concern and their own contributions to the world of knowledge.
On 6 November 2010, Montague broke a strike at the BBC called by the National Union of Journalists. She arrived to present the Today programme at 3:30 am, along with fellow presenter Evan Davis, thereby not technically crossing the picket line. On 15 July 2011, she again broke an NUJ strike by presenting Today with Justin Webb, again by arriving early.
In 2013, she was awarded an honorary degree Doctor of Letters by the University of Sussex. On 10 February 2015, she was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa from the University of Bristol.
After 18 years, she left Radio 4’s flagship current affairs programme in April 2018 to take over the lead on the lunchtime news broadcast The World at One from Martha Kearney. She was earning much less than her male colleagues. She described herself as "incandescent with rage" when she found out she was earning less than other presenters.
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