Sally Magnusson

Sally Magnusson (born 11 October 1955) is a Scottish broadcaster and writer, working as the presenter of Reporting Scotland for BBC Scotland. She also presents Tracing Your Roots on BBC Radio 4 and is one of the main presenters of the long-running religious television programme Songs of Praise. Sally Magnusson was born in 1955 and is the daughter of the late Icelandic broadcaster and writer Magnus Magnusson. Her mother, Mamie Baird, also worked as a journalist. Her late maternal uncle is footballer Archie Baird. Magnusson was educated at Laurel Bank School for Girls, a former independent school (which later merged with another independent school, The Park School, to form Laurel Park School, itself to merge in 2001 into Hutchesons' Grammar School) in the city of Glasgow, followed by the University of Edinburgh, where she studied English Language and Literature. Magnusson started her career in journalism at the The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh and then the Sunday Standard in Glasgow. She is often seen on BBC television, most notably as a long-serving presenter of BBC Scotland's Reporting Scotland news programme, a role she shares with Jackie Bird. In the 1980s, Magnusson was a presenter on the BBC's Breakfast Time. In 1987 she was part of the Breakfast Time team, including Frank Bough, Jeremy Paxman and Peter Snow, which covered the results of the general election. From 1989 onwards, she co-presented the programme's replacement, Breakfast News, initially with Laurie Mayer, and in later years, with Justin Webb. Magnusson has presented many television programmes, ranging from Reporting Scotland to Panorama to Songs of Praise. In 2005 she joined BBC Two's The Daily Politics as its Friday presenter. Magnusson is the author of Life of Pee: The Story of How Urine Got Everywhere. She has also written books about the Scottish runner Eric Liddell, who refused to run on the Sabbath day due to his Christian beliefs, and about the Cornish Christian poet Jack Clemo and his marriage to Ruth Peaty. Magnusson wrote the children's book Horace and the Haggis Hunter, which was illustrated by her husband, Norman Stone.