Antonia Fraser
Encyclopedia
Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE
(born 27 August 1932), née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies
and detective fiction
, best known as Antonia Fraser. She is the widow of Harold Pinter
(1930–2008), the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature
, and, prior to her husband's death, was also known as Antonia Pinter.
(1905–2001), and his wife, Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, née Elizabeth Harman (1906–2002). As the daughter of an Earl, she is accorded the honorific
courtesy title "Lady" and thus customarily addressed formally as "Lady Antonia".
As a teenager, she and her siblings converted to Catholicism, following the conversions of their parents. Her "maternal grandparents were Unitarians
– a non-conformist faith with a strong emphasis on social reform ...". In response to criticism of her writing about Oliver Cromwell
, she has said: "I have no Catholic blood". Before his own conversion in his thirties following a nervous breakdown in the Army, as she explains, "My father was Protestant Church of Ireland
, and my mother was Unitarian up to the age of 20 when she abandoned it." She was educated at St Mary's School, Ascot and Dragon School, Oxford
and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
; the last was also her mother's alma mater.
(1918–1984), a descendant of Scottish aristocracy 14 years her senior and a Roman Catholic Conservative Unionist
MP in the House of Commons
(sitting for Stafford
), who was a friend of the American Kennedy family
. They had six children: three sons, Benjamin, Damian, and Orlando; and three daughters, Rebecca Fitzgerald, wife of barrister Edward Fitzgerald, QC, Flora Fraser
and Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni. All three daughters are writers and biographers. Benjamin Fraser works for JPMorgan, Damian Fraser is the managing director of the investment banking firm UBS AG (formerly S. G. Warburg)
in Mexico, and Orlando Fraser is a barrister
specializing in commercial law
(Wroe). Antonia Fraser has 18 grandchildren.
On 22 October 1975, Hugh and Antonia Fraser, together with Caroline Kennedy
, who was visiting them at their Holland Park
home, in Kensington
, west London, were almost blown up by an IRA
car bomb placed under the wheels of his Jaguar, which had been triggered to go off at 9 am when he left the house; the bomb exploded killing a noted cancer researcher
, Dr. Gordon Hamilton-Fairley
(1930–1975). Hamilton-Fairley, a neighbour of the Frasers, had been walking his dog, when he noticed something amiss and approached the vehicle when the bomb went off.
In 1975 Antonia Fraser began an affair with playwright Harold Pinter
, who was then married to the actress Vivien Merchant
. In 1977, after she had been living with Pinter for two years, the Frasers' union was legally dissolved. Merchant spoke about her distress publicly to the press, which quoted her cutting remarks about her rival, but she resisted divorcing Pinter. In 1980, after Merchant signed divorce papers, Fraser and Pinter married. After the deaths of both their spouses, Fraser and Pinter were married by a Jesuit priest, Fr. Michael Campbell-Johnson, in the Roman Catholic Church. Harold Pinter died from cancer on 24 December 2008, aged 78.
Lady Antonia Fraser lives in the London district of Holland Park
, within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
, south of Notting Hill Gate
, in the Fraser family home, where she still writes in her fourth-floor study.
Commentators have stated that, "more than just a pretty face", Antonia Fraser is an accomplished historian and "an intellectual".
A Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), she was elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to literature.
at Weidenfeld & Nicolson
(her "only job"), which later became her own publisher and part of Orion Publishing Group
, which publishes her works in the UK.
Her first major work, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, was Mary, Queen of Scots
(1969), which was followed by several other biographies, including Cromwell, Our Chief of Men (1973). She won the Wolfson History Award in 1984 for The Weaker Vessel, a study of women's lives in 17th century England. From 1988 to 1989, she was president of English PEN
, and she chaired its Writers in Prison Committee.
She also has written detective novels; the most popular involved a character named Jemima Shore
were adapted into a television series which aired in the UK in 1983.
In 1983 to 1984, she was president of Edinburgh
's Sir Walter Scott Club
.
More recently, Fraser published The Warrior Queens, the story of various military royal women since the days of Boadicea and Cleopatra
. In 1992, a year after Alison Weir
's book The Six Wives of Henry VIII, she published a book with the same title, which British historian Eric Ives
cites in his study of Anne Boleyn
.
She chronicled the life and times of Charles II
in a well-reviewed 1979 eponymous biography. The book was cited as an influence on the 2003 BBC
/A&E
mini-series, Charles II: The Power & the Passion, in a featurette on the DVD, by Rufus Sewell
who played the title character. Fraser has also served as the editor for many monarchical biographies, including those featured in the Kings and Queens of England and Royal History of England series, and, in 1996, she also published a book entitled The Gunpowder Plot
: Terror and Faith in 1605, which won both the St Louis Literary Award and the Crime Writers' Association
(CWA) Non-Fiction Gold Dagger
.
Two of the most recent of her thirteen non-fiction books are Marie Antoinette: The Journey
(2001, 2002), which has been made into the film Marie Antoinette
(2006), directed by Sofia Coppola
, with Kirsten Dunst
in the title role, and Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King (2006).
panel game
My Word!
from 1979 to 1990.
She serves as a judge for the Enid McLeod Literary Prize, awarded by the Franco-British Society, previously winning that prize for her biography Marie Antoinette
(2001).
," but she also said, "It is early days and I don't want to make any comment at the present time because I am still in mourning"; although "a source at her publishers Weidenfeld & Nicolson
told the reporter, "We have been sworn to secrecy about this," the writer speculates that the book is "expected to be a touching love letter" to Pinter. This Daily Mail reporter speculates further that "Some will even wonder if her intent is to pre-empt the possibility of another less agreeable biographer pitching up with the first book on Pinter's life and death." Such speculation does not seem to take account of the fact that Pinter's official authorised biographer, Michael Billington
, who is generally quite sympathetic to Pinter ("agreeable"), announced in January 2009 that a third edition of his book Harold Pinter (2nd ed., 2007) is being rushed to press by Faber
and that it "will take account of the international response to Pinter's death." Fraser's memoir Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter was published in January 2010 and she read a shortened version as BBC Radio Four's Book of the Week that month.
At the Cheltenham Literary Festival on 17 October 2010, Lady Antonia announced that her next work would be on the subject of the Great Reform Bill 1832. She is no longer planning a biography of Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland
as this subject has already been extensively covered.
(BL); there is a registry of this archive accessible via the British Library Manuscripts Catalogue online search facility, listing 19 boxes of materials. Papers by and relating to Lady Antonia Fraser are also catalogued as part of the Harold Pinter Archive, which is part of its permanent collection of Additional Manuscripts.
Interviews and interview-based articles
Timelines
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 27 August 1932), née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
and detective fiction
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
, best known as Antonia Fraser. She is the widow of Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
(1930–2008), the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
, and, prior to her husband's death, was also known as Antonia Pinter.
Family background and education
Fraser is the daughter of Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of LongfordFrank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford
Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford KG, PC , known as the Lord Pakenham from 1945 to 1961, was a British politician, author, and social reformer...
(1905–2001), and his wife, Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, née Elizabeth Harman (1906–2002). As the daughter of an Earl, she is accorded the honorific
Honorific
An honorific is a word or expression with connotations conveying esteem or respect when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term is used not quite correctly to refer to an honorary title...
courtesy title "Lady" and thus customarily addressed formally as "Lady Antonia".
As a teenager, she and her siblings converted to Catholicism, following the conversions of their parents. Her "maternal grandparents were Unitarians
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
– a non-conformist faith with a strong emphasis on social reform ...". In response to criticism of her writing about Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
, she has said: "I have no Catholic blood". Before his own conversion in his thirties following a nervous breakdown in the Army, as she explains, "My father was Protestant Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
, and my mother was Unitarian up to the age of 20 when she abandoned it." She was educated at St Mary's School, Ascot and Dragon School, Oxford
Dragon School
The Dragon School is a British coeducational, preparatory school in the city of Oxford, founded in 1877 as the Oxford Preparatory School, or OPS. It is primarily known as a boarding school, although it also takes day pupils...
and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Lady Margaret Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located at the end of Norham Gardens in north Oxford. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £34m....
; the last was also her mother's alma mater.
Marriages and later life
From 1956 until their divorce in 1977, she was married to Sir Hugh FraserHugh Fraser (politician)
Major Sir Hugh Charles Patrick Joseph Fraser MBE was a British Conservative politician and first husband of the author Lady Antonia Fraser.-Youth and military career:...
(1918–1984), a descendant of Scottish aristocracy 14 years her senior and a Roman Catholic Conservative Unionist
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MP in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
(sitting for Stafford
Stafford (UK Parliament constituency)
Stafford is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. The sitting MP is the Conservative Jeremy Lefroy....
), who was a friend of the American Kennedy family
Kennedy family
In the United States, the phrase Kennedy family commonly refers to the family descending from the marriage of the Irish-Americans Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. and Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald that was prominent in American politics and government. Their political involvement has revolved around the...
. They had six children: three sons, Benjamin, Damian, and Orlando; and three daughters, Rebecca Fitzgerald, wife of barrister Edward Fitzgerald, QC, Flora Fraser
Flora Fraser (writer)
Flora Fraser Soros is an English writer of historical biographies.-Family:She is the daughter of historian and historical biographer Lady Antonia Fraser and the late Sir Hugh Fraser, a British Conservative politician. Her stepfather was the playwright Harold Pinter, the 2005 Nobel Laureate in...
and Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni. All three daughters are writers and biographers. Benjamin Fraser works for JPMorgan, Damian Fraser is the managing director of the investment banking firm UBS AG (formerly S. G. Warburg)
UBS AG
UBS AG is a Swiss global financial services company headquartered in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland, which provides investment banking, asset management, and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland...
in Mexico, and Orlando Fraser is a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
specializing in commercial law
Commercial law
Commercial law is the body of law that governs business and commercial transactions...
(Wroe). Antonia Fraser has 18 grandchildren.
On 22 October 1975, Hugh and Antonia Fraser, together with Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is an American author and attorney. She is a member of the influential Kennedy family and the only surviving child of U.S. President John F...
, who was visiting them at their Holland Park
Holland Park
Holland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London, England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...
home, in Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
, west London, were almost blown up by an IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
car bomb placed under the wheels of his Jaguar, which had been triggered to go off at 9 am when he left the house; the bomb exploded killing a noted cancer researcher
Oncology
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with cancer...
, Dr. Gordon Hamilton-Fairley
Gordon Hamilton-Fairley
Gordon Hamilton Fairley DM, FRCP was a professor of medical oncology. Born and raised in Australia, he moved to the United Kingdom where he studied and worked. He was killed by an IRA bomb intended to kill Sir Hugh Fraser....
(1930–1975). Hamilton-Fairley, a neighbour of the Frasers, had been walking his dog, when he noticed something amiss and approached the vehicle when the bomb went off.
In 1975 Antonia Fraser began an affair with playwright Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
, who was then married to the actress Vivien Merchant
Vivien Merchant
Vivien Merchant was a British actress.-Career:Merchant performed in many stage productions and several films, including Alfie and Frenzy...
. In 1977, after she had been living with Pinter for two years, the Frasers' union was legally dissolved. Merchant spoke about her distress publicly to the press, which quoted her cutting remarks about her rival, but she resisted divorcing Pinter. In 1980, after Merchant signed divorce papers, Fraser and Pinter married. After the deaths of both their spouses, Fraser and Pinter were married by a Jesuit priest, Fr. Michael Campbell-Johnson, in the Roman Catholic Church. Harold Pinter died from cancer on 24 December 2008, aged 78.
Lady Antonia Fraser lives in the London district of Holland Park
Holland Park
Holland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London, England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...
, within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is a central London borough of Royal borough status. After the City of Westminster, it is the wealthiest borough in England....
, south of Notting Hill Gate
Notting Hill Gate
Notting Hill Gate is one of the main thoroughfares of Notting Hill, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically the street was a location for toll gates, from which it derives its modern name.- Location :...
, in the Fraser family home, where she still writes in her fourth-floor study.
Commentators have stated that, "more than just a pretty face", Antonia Fraser is an accomplished historian and "an intellectual".
A Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), she was elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to literature.
Career
She began work as an "all-purpose assistant" for George WeidenfeldGeorge Weidenfeld
Arthur George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld, GBE is a British publisher, philanthropist, and newspaper columnist. He was born in Vienna, Austria.Weidenfeld attended the University of Vienna and the city's Diplomatic College...
at Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It is a division of the Orion Publishing Group.-History:...
(her "only job"), which later became her own publisher and part of Orion Publishing Group
Orion Publishing Group
Orion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It is owned by Hachette Livre. In 1998 Orion bought Cassell.-History:Full history of the group can be found on Orion Publishing Group is owned by -Imprints:...
, which publishes her works in the UK.
Her first major work, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, was Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (1969 book)
Mary Queen of Scots is a 1969 biography of Mary, Queen of Scots, by Antonia Fraser. A 40th-anniversary edition of the book was published in 2009....
(1969), which was followed by several other biographies, including Cromwell, Our Chief of Men (1973). She won the Wolfson History Award in 1984 for The Weaker Vessel, a study of women's lives in 17th century England. From 1988 to 1989, she was president of English PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
, and she chaired its Writers in Prison Committee.
She also has written detective novels; the most popular involved a character named Jemima Shore
Jemima Shore
Jemima Shore is a fictional character created by Antonia Fraser, and is portrayed as TV's consummately professional investigative journalist...
were adapted into a television series which aired in the UK in 1983.
In 1983 to 1984, she was president of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
's Sir Walter Scott Club
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
.
More recently, Fraser published The Warrior Queens, the story of various military royal women since the days of Boadicea and Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII of Egypt
Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.She was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a family of Greek origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great's death during the Hellenistic period...
. In 1992, a year after Alison Weir
Alison Weir (historian)
Alison Weir is a British writer of history books, and latterly historical novels, mostly in the form of biographies about British royalty.-Personal life:...
's book The Six Wives of Henry VIII, she published a book with the same title, which British historian Eric Ives
Eric Ives
Eric William Ives, OBE is a British historian and an expert on the Tudor period. He is Emeritus Professor of English History at the University of Birmingham...
cites in his study of Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...
.
She chronicled the life and times of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
in a well-reviewed 1979 eponymous biography. The book was cited as an influence on the 2003 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
/A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
mini-series, Charles II: The Power & the Passion, in a featurette on the DVD, by Rufus Sewell
Rufus Sewell
Rufus Frederik Sewell is an English actor. In film, he has appeared in The Woodlanders, Dangerous Beauty, Dark City, A Knight's Tale, The Illusionist, Tristan and Isolde, and Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence. On television, he starred in the 2010 mini-series The Pillars of the Earth...
who played the title character. Fraser has also served as the editor for many monarchical biographies, including those featured in the Kings and Queens of England and Royal History of England series, and, in 1996, she also published a book entitled The Gunpowder Plot
Gunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.The plan was to blow up the House of...
: Terror and Faith in 1605, which won both the St Louis Literary Award and the Crime Writers' Association
Crime Writers' Association
The Crime Writers Association is a writers' association in the United Kingdom. Founded by John Creasey in 1953, it is currently chaired by Peter James and claims 450+ members....
(CWA) Non-Fiction Gold Dagger
Gold Dagger
The Gold Dagger Award was an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association for the best crime novel of the year.For its first five years, the organization's top honor was known as the Crossed Red Herring Award....
.
Two of the most recent of her thirteen non-fiction books are Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Marie Antoinette: The Journey is a sympathetic 2001 biography of Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France by Lady Antonia Fraser. It is the basis for the 2006 Sofia Coppola film Marie Antoinette....
(2001, 2002), which has been made into the film Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (2006 film)
Marie Antoinette is a 2006 biographical film, written and directed by Sofia Coppola. It is very loosely based on the life of the Queen consort in the years leading up to the French Revolution. It won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design...
(2006), directed by Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola
Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
, with Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories...
in the title role, and Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King (2006).
Related experience
She was a contestant on the BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
panel game
Panel game
A panel game or panel show is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participates. Panelists may compete with each other, such as on The News Quiz; facilitate play by guest contestants, such as on Match Game/Blankety Blank; or do both, such as on Wait Wait.....
My Word!
My Word!
My Word! was a long-running radio panel game broadcast by the BBC on the Home Service and Radio 4 . It was created by Edward J. Mason and Tony Shryane, and featured comic writers Denis Norden and Frank Muir, famous in Britain for the series Take It From Here...
from 1979 to 1990.
She serves as a judge for the Enid McLeod Literary Prize, awarded by the Franco-British Society, previously winning that prize for her biography Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Marie Antoinette: The Journey is a sympathetic 2001 biography of Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France by Lady Antonia Fraser. It is the basis for the 2006 Sofia Coppola film Marie Antoinette....
(2001).
Memoir
According to an anonymous news account published in the Mail Online on 8 April 2009, Lady Antonia Fraser confirmed to its author on 7 April that her next book is "a memoir of her late husband Harold PinterHarold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
," but she also said, "It is early days and I don't want to make any comment at the present time because I am still in mourning"; although "a source at her publishers Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It is a division of the Orion Publishing Group.-History:...
told the reporter, "We have been sworn to secrecy about this," the writer speculates that the book is "expected to be a touching love letter" to Pinter. This Daily Mail reporter speculates further that "Some will even wonder if her intent is to pre-empt the possibility of another less agreeable biographer pitching up with the first book on Pinter's life and death." Such speculation does not seem to take account of the fact that Pinter's official authorised biographer, Michael Billington
Michael Billington (critic)
Michael Keith Billington is a British author and arts critic. Drama critic of The Guardian since October 1971, he is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts; most notably, he is the authorised...
, who is generally quite sympathetic to Pinter ("agreeable"), announced in January 2009 that a third edition of his book Harold Pinter (2nd ed., 2007) is being rushed to press by Faber
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
and that it "will take account of the international response to Pinter's death." Fraser's memoir Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter was published in January 2010 and she read a shortened version as BBC Radio Four's Book of the Week that month.
At the Cheltenham Literary Festival on 17 October 2010, Lady Antonia announced that her next work would be on the subject of the Great Reform Bill 1832. She is no longer planning a biography of Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
as this subject has already been extensively covered.
The Lady Antonia Fraser Archive in the British Library
Lady Antonia Fraser's uncatalogued papers (relating to her "Early Writing", "Fiction", and "Non-Fiction") are on loan at the British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
(BL); there is a registry of this archive accessible via the British Library Manuscripts Catalogue online search facility, listing 19 boxes of materials. Papers by and relating to Lady Antonia Fraser are also catalogued as part of the Harold Pinter Archive, which is part of its permanent collection of Additional Manuscripts.
Awards
- James Tait Black Memorial PrizeJames Tait Black Memorial PrizeFounded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
(1969), for her book Mary, Queen of ScotsMary, Queen of Scots (1969 book)Mary Queen of Scots is a 1969 biography of Mary, Queen of Scots, by Antonia Fraser. A 40th-anniversary edition of the book was published in 2009....
. - Wolfson History PrizeWolfson History PrizeThe Wolfson History Prizes are literary awards given annually in the United Kingdom to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public...
(1984), for her book The Weaker Vessel. - Crime Writers' AssociationCrime Writers' AssociationThe Crime Writers Association is a writers' association in the United Kingdom. Founded by John Creasey in 1953, it is currently chaired by Peter James and claims 450+ members....
Macallan Gold DaggerGold DaggerThe Gold Dagger Award was an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association for the best crime novel of the year.For its first five years, the organization's top honor was known as the Crossed Red Herring Award....
for Non-Fiction (1996), for her book The Gunpowder Plot. - St Louis Literary Award (1996), for her book The Gunpowder Plot.
- Historical AssociationHistorical AssociationThe Historical Association is an organisation founded in 1906 and based in London, England. The goals of the Historical Association are to support "the study and enjoyment of history at all levels by creating an environment that promotes lifelong learning and provides for the evolving needs of...
Norton Medlicott Medal (2000). - Enid McLeod Literary Prize (2001), from the Franco-British Society, for Marie AntoinetteMarie Antoinette: The JourneyMarie Antoinette: The Journey is a sympathetic 2001 biography of Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France by Lady Antonia Fraser. It is the basis for the 2006 Sofia Coppola film Marie Antoinette....
.
Non-fiction works
- Mary Queen of Scots (1969). ISBN 038531129X. Reissued, Phoenix paperback, 2001; ISBN 9781842124468. 40th anniversary ed., reissued Orion paperback, 7 May 2009; ISBN 9780753826546.
- King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1970)
- Dolls (1963)
- Cromwell, Our Chief of Men (1973); also published as Cromwell: The Lord Protector. ISBN 0802137660.
- King James VI and I (1974)
- The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England (1975) [Editor.]
- King Charles II (1979). Also published as Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration and Charles II; ISBN 075381403X.
- The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot in Seventeenth-century England (1984)
- The Warrior Queens: Boadicea's Chariot (1988). Also published as Warrior Queens: The Legends and Lives of Women Who have led Their Nations in War.
- The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1999; rpt. & updated ed., London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2007); ISBN 9780297643555. Also published as the Orion audio-book The Six Wives of Henry VIII (November 2006); ISBN 0752889133. The first paperback ed. is The Six Wives of Henry VIII (London: Mandarin, 1993); ISBN 9780749314095. The 1st American ed. is entitled The Wives of Henry VIII. New York: Knopf, 1992; ISBN 9780394585383.
- The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605 (1996); also published as Faith and Treason: The Gunpowder Plot; ISBN 0385471890.
- Marie Antoinette (2001); ISBN 0385489498 (also published with the subtitle Marie Antoinette: The JourneyMarie Antoinette: The JourneyMarie Antoinette: The Journey is a sympathetic 2001 biography of Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France by Lady Antonia Fraser. It is the basis for the 2006 Sofia Coppola film Marie Antoinette....
, 2002); ISBN 9780753821404. - Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King (2006); ISBN 0297829971.
- Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter (2010). 1st ed. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (Orion Books); ISBN 9780297859710. 1st U.S. ed., New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday; ISBN 9780385532501. 1st paperback ed. London: Phoenix, 2010; ISBN 9780753827581 (also published in audio & digital eds.) - "Shortlisted for Galaxy National Book Awards: Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2010."
Jemima Shore novels
- Quiet as a NunQuiet as a NunQuiet as a Nun is a thriller novel, written by Antonia Fraser. First published in 1977, it features Fraser's sleuthing heroine Jemima Shore as she revisits the convent where she was schooled following the mysterious death of one of the nuns...
(1977) - The Wild Island (1978)
- A Splash of Red (1981)
- Cool Repentance (1982)
- Oxford BloodOxford BloodOxford Blood is a crime novel by Antonia Fraser first published in 1985.The novel begins with reporter Jemima Shore making a television documentary at Oxford University. Most prominent among the undergraduates is Lord Saffron, a wealthy, twenty-year-old heir to a former Foreign Secretary...
(1985) - Jemima Shore's First Case (1986)
- Your Royal Hostage (1987)
- The Cavalier Case (1990)
- Jemima Shore at the Sunny GraveJemima Shore at the Sunny GraveJemima Shore at the Sunny Grave And Other Stories is a book by Antonia Fraser. First published in 1991, it a collection of nine short stories, featuring series character Jemima Shore. It includes such settings as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. The book includes murderous drama, black comedy,...
(1991) - Political Death (1995)
Selected references
Biographies and profiles- Gussow MelMel GussowMelvyn H. Gussow was an American theater critic, movie critic, and author who wrote for The New York Times for 35 years.-Biography:...
. "The Lady Is a Writer". The New York Times MagazineThe New York Times MagazineThe New York Times Magazine is a Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times. It is host to feature articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors...
9 September 1984, Sunday Late City Final Ed., Sec. 6: 60, col. 2. Print. New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, New York Times CompanyThe New York Times CompanyThe New York Times Company is an American media company best known as the publisher of its namesake, The New York Times. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. has served as Chairman of the Board since 1997. It is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City....
, 9 September 1984. WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. 8 April 2009 (8 pages.) (cached version).
- "Our President in 1983/84 was: Lady Antonia Fraser" (relocated to:) "Our President in 1983/84 was: Lady Antonia Fraser" (updated version); bio in "Past Presidents" section. Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club, n.d.; updated 2008–2009. WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. 5 January 2008 and (updated version) 8 April 2009 (first version hosted short audio clip of "Toast to Sir Walter; full text available in 1984 Club Bulletin; full speech available on CD from Club site; campaign underway to post the full speech online).
- Snowman, Daniel. "Lady Antonia Fraser". History TodayHistory TodayHistory Today is an illustrated history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it is the world's leading, and possibly oldest, history magazine. Its successful mission has always been to present serious and authoritative history to as wide a public as possible...
50.10 (Oct. 2000): 26–28. Print. History Today, 2000. WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. 13 June 2008. (Excerpt; full article available to subscribers or pay-per-view customers.)
- Wroe, Nicholas. "Profile: The History Woman." GuardianGuardian.co.ukguardian.co.uk, formerly known as Guardian Unlimited, is a British website owned by the Guardian Media Group. Georgina Henry is the editor...
, Arts & Humanities. Guardian Media GroupGuardian Media GroupGuardian Media Group plc is a company of the United Kingdom owning various mass media operations including The Guardian and The Observer. The Group is owned by the Scott Trust. It was founded as the Manchester Guardian Ltd in 1907 when C. P. Scott bought the Manchester Guardian from the estate of...
, 24 August 2002. WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. 13 June 2008.
Interviews and interview-based articles
- Dougary, Ginny. "Lady Antonia Fraser's Life Less Ordinary: In a Frank Interview, the Famed Writer Talks about Motherhood, Catholicism, Her Parents and Soulmate Harold PinterHarold PinterHarold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
". TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. News CorporationNews CorporationNews Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
, 5 July 2008. WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. 8 April 2009. - "Interviews: Antonia Fraser Peers into the Heart of Louis XIV". Weekend EditionWeekend EditionWeekend Edition is the name given to a set of American radio news magazines produced and distributed by National Public Radio . It is the weekend counterpart to Morning Edition. It consists of Weekend Edition Saturday and Weekend Edition Sunday , each of which airs for two hours, from 8 a.m. to 10...
Saturday. National Public Radio, 11 November 2006. WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. 8 April 2009. (NPR audio accessible for both RealPlayerRealPlayerRealPlayer is a cross-platform media player by RealNetworks that plays a number of multimedia formats including MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media, and multiple versions of proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo formats.-History:...
and Windows Media PlayerWindows Media PlayerWindows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...
.) - Leith, Sam. "Literary Lazing". Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, Arts Blogs. Telegraph Media Group LtdThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, 10 July 2007. WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. 8 April 2009. - Talese, Nan A.Nan TaleseNan Talese is an American editor and a veteran of the New York publishing industry.-Career:Talese is Senior Vice President of Doubleday and the Publisher and Editorial Director of Nan A. Talese/Doubleday...
Interview with Antonia Fraser. Random House Books. Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, 2001. WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. 8 January 2008 (archived); 9 April 2009. (Transcript; "This interview appears in an abridged form in the Nan A. Talese Fall 2001 Catalog of Authors.") - Weinberg, Kate. "Culture Clinic: Lady Antonia Fraser". The TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
. Telegraph Media Group LtdThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, 15 Mar. 2008; updated 20 March 2008. WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. 8 April 2009.
Timelines
- "Timeline: 1974–75: The Year London Blew Up: August–November 1975": "22 October 1975." Channel 4Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. Channel 4, n.d. WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. 6 July 2008.
External links
- "Antonia Fraser" – Author webpage (featuring "Author Spotlight"). Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
(US publisher) - "Antonia Fraser" – Author webpage. Orion Publishing GroupOrion Publishing GroupOrion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It is owned by Hachette Livre. In 1998 Orion bought Cassell.-History:Full history of the group can be found on Orion Publishing Group is owned by -Imprints:...
(UK publisher) - AntoniaFraser.com – Official website of Antonia Fraser. ("© 2007 Antonia Fraser. All rights reserved.")
- Antonia Fraser – Biography at her official website
- Antonia Fraser – Client page at Curtis Brown Literary and Talent AgencyCurtis Brown (literary agents)Curtis Brown is a literary and talent agency based in London, UK. It was founded in 1899 by Albert Curtis Brown.-History:...
- "Antonia's Choice" – In Desert Island DiscsDesert Island DiscsDesert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...
on BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
(first broadcast 27 July 2008; rebroadcast 1 August 2008) - British Library Manuscripts Catalogue (Search facility: To find the Harold Pinter Archive by type and number (previously Loan No. 110 A), select "Additional Manuscripts" in drop-down menu; enter collection number: 88880 ["Add MS 88880"]; it includes papers relating to Lady Antonia Fraser [Mrs. Antonia Pinter]; see search for "Antonia Fraser" via "Descriptions" below. The Lady Antonia Fraser Archive [still Loan No. 110 B] also listed separately below.)
- British Library Manuscripts Catalogue Search: "Antonia Fraser" – Holdings pertaining to Antonia Fraser (Mrs. Harold Pinter) ["Descriptions" searches time out; select "Descriptions" in top menu]
- "Lady Antonia Fraser Archive" (Loan No. 110 B, not yet catalogued)
- "Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Pakenham" – Biography posted in thePeerage.com: "A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe: Person Page – 7094 [#i70938]" (updated 29 November 2010)
- Must You Go? extract – "First Night" (Chapter One), Galaxy National Book Awards (Phoenix ed.)