BBC star died penniless despite 30 year career as she gave up huge fortune

Sister Wendy Beckett was one of the most unlikely television stars of the 1990s. A bespectacled nun who lived much of her life as a hermit in a caravan in Norfolk, she became a household name with BBC arts documentaries watched by millions. Yet, despite international fame and success, she died in 2018 without personal wealth, deciding to donate it to worthy charities.

Wendy Mary Beckett was born on 25 February 1930 in Johannesburg, South Africa, the daughter of a physician. In 1954 she obtained a teaching diploma from Notre Dame College of Education in Liverpool and returned to South Africa. There she taught English and Latin at convent schools in Cape Town and Johannesburg, later lecturing at the University of the Witwatersrand.

By 1970, ill health forced Beckett to give up teaching. With papal permission, she left the Notre Dame order and became a consecrated virgin and hermit, moving back to England. She lived first in a caravan and later in a small mobile home on the grounds of the Carmelite Monastery at Quidenham, Norfolk.

A chance encounter soon changed her life. Having overheard her commentary at an exhibition, a film crew asked to record her speaking on art. This led to the BBC commissioning her first programme, Sister Wendy's Odyssey, in 1992. To everyone's surprise - including her own - she proved to be a natural on camera.

Her follow-up series, Sister Wendy's Grand Tour (1994), saw her travel across Europe to marvel at the continent's great galleries and masterpieces.

By the late 1990s, she was one of the BBC's most successful presenters. At the height of her fame, her documentaries attracted a 25 per cent share of the British viewing audience. In 1997 she broke into the American market with Sister Wendy's American Collection on PBS, where The New York Times described her as "the most unlikely and famous art critic in the history of television."

Despite her success, Beckett never abandoned her hermit life. She travelled to film but always returned to her caravan, where she lived in simplicity. She prayed up to seven hours a day, rarely saw films or visited museums outside of her work, and remained committed to her vows of poverty. Every penny she earned from her BBC and publishing career was given to the Carmelite order that sheltered her.

Sister Wendy died on 26 December 2018 at the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham, Norfolk, aged 88. The order confirmed her death, noting that she had lived on its grounds for nearly half a century, though never as a member of the Carmelite community itself.

She wrote more than 25 books, from art criticism to spiritual reflections, and fronted a dozen major documentaries. She became known for her frankness in discussing nudity and sexuality in art, insisting there was nothing shameful in celebrating the human body as part of God's creation. Her commentary could be startlingly candid - but it was always delivered with reverence and wonder.