Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, (; born 27 August 1932) is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature,

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

(1930–2008), and prior to his death was also known as Lady Antonia Pinter. Mel Gussow
"The Lady Is a Writer"
'' The New York Times Magazine'', 9 September 1984, Sec. 6, Health: 60, col. 2. Print. The New York Times Company, 9 September 1984; retrieved 8 April 2009.Antonia Fraser
"Writer's Rooms: Antonia Fraser"
'' Guardian'', Culture: Books, Guardian Media Group, 13 June 2008; retrieved 8 April 2009. (Includes photograph of Antonia Fraser's study.)"Non-Fiction: Author: Antonia Fraser"
, Orion Books, 2004–2007 pdated 2009 retrieved 9 April 2009.

Family background and education

Fraser is the first-born of the eight children of Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford (1905–2001) and his wife, Elizabeth, Countess of Longford, '' née'' Elizabeth Harman (1906–2002). As the daughter of an earl, she is accorded the courtesy title "Lady" and thus customarily addressed formally as "Lady Antonia". As a teenager,Ginny Dougary
"Lady Antonia Fraser's Life Less Ordinary"
br> "In a Frank Interview, the Famed Writer Talks about Motherhood, Catholicism, Her Parents and Soulmate

", ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', News Corporation, 5 July 2008, 9 April 2009. she and her siblings converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, following the conversions of their parents.Daniel Snowman,
"Lady Antonia Fraser"
'' History Today'' 50.10 (October 2000): pp. 26–28, ''History Today'', n.d., 8 April 2009 (excerpt; full article available to subscribers or pay-per-view customers). 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 the Dragon School in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

,"Non-Fiction: Antonia Fraser: Author Q&A"
, ''Orion Books'', 2004–2007 pdated 2009 retrieved 9 April 2009. St Mary's School, Ascot, and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford; the last was also her mother's alma mater.Nicholas Wroe,
"Profile: The History Woman"
''The Guardian'', Arts & Humanities, 24 August 2002; retrieved 8 April 2009.
, ''University of Oxford Alumni'', University of Oxford, 29 October 2007. Retrieved 17 June 2008. Prior to going to Oxford in 1950, she was a debutante in the London social season.

Career

Fraser began work as an "all-purpose assistant" for George Weidenfeld 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.Antonia Fraser
"Antonia Fraser: Author Q&A"
, Orion Books, 2004–2007 pdated 2009 Retrieved 9 April 2009.

Biography and history

Fraser's first major work was ''

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legit ...

'' (1969), published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, which was followed by several other biographies, including ''Cromwell, Our Chief of Men'' (1973)."History Books by Antonia Fraser"
an
"Other Books by Antonia Fraser"
at ''AntoniaFraser.com'', Antonia Fraser, 2007; retrieved 9 April 2009

, ''Orion Books'', 2004–2007 pdated 2009 9 April 2009. Fraser acknowledges she is "less interested in ideas than in 'the people who led nations' and so on. I don't think I could ever have written a history of political thought or anything like that. I'd have to come at it another way." Fraser's study, ''The Warrior Queens'' (1989), is an account of 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. 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 Rufus Frederik Sewell (; born 29 October 1967) is a British actor. In film, he has appeared in ''Carrington (film), Carrington'' (1995), ''Hamlet (1996 film), Hamlet'' (1996), ''Dangerous Beauty'' (1998), ''Dark City (1998 film), Dark City'' (1 ...

who played the title character. Fraser served as 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.Antonia Fraser
''The Gunpowder Plot''
, 2007, Antonia Fraser website; retrieved 13 June 2008. Her biography, '' Marie Antoinette: The Journey'' (2001, 2002), was adapted for the film '' Marie Antoinette'' (2006), directed by

Sofia Coppola Sofia Carmina Coppola ( , ; born May 14, 1971) is an American filmmaker and former actress. She has List of awards and nominations received by Sofia Coppola, won an Academy Awards, Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, a Golden Lion, and a Can ...

, with Kirsten Dunst in the title role, and ''Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King'' (2006). She contemplated a biography of Queen Elizabeth I, but shelved the idea as this subject has already been extensively covered. Fraser won the Wolfson History Award in 1984 for ''The Weaker Vessel'', a study of women's lives in 17th-century England.

Other writing

Fraser has written detective novels, the most popular a series of ten written between 1977 and 1995 and involving a female television personality and detective named Jemima Shore; the latter were adapted into the television series '' Jemima Shore Investigates'', which aired in the UK in 1983. Early publications included volumes on dolls and toys. Her first book was a volume about King Arthur, one edition of which was illustrated by her eldest daughter; it was written for a series for Marks and Spencer, as was a later volume about Robin Hood.

Media and societies

From 1988 to 1989, Fraser was president of English PEN, and she chaired its Writers in Prison Committee. From 1983 to 1984, she was president of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

's Sir Walter Scott Club."Our President in 1983/84 was: Lady Antonia Fraser"
biography, ''

Sir Walter Scott Club'', n.d. Retrieved 8 April 2009. 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)."Benefits"
Franco-British Society, 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2009.Alex Danchev
"They Remember, But Others Forget"
'' Times Higher Education Supplement'', News Corporation, 2 March 2007. Retrieved 13 June 2008. Fraser is a vice-president of the London Library. She has also been a vice-president of the Royal Stuart Society. Fraser was a contestant on the BBC Radio 4 panel game '' My Word!'' Cf.
My Word!
', BBC Radio 4, BBC, 9 April 2009. from 1979 to 1990.

Memoirs

Fraser's first 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."Antonia Fraser to tell Harold Pinter 'love story'
Historical biographer will publish her 'portrait of a marriage' to the Nobel laureate in January 2010", ''The Guardian'', 9 June 2009. Retrieved 19 June 2009. Michael Billington's authorised biography of Pinter (''Harold Pinter'', pp. 271–72). It was the Frasers' marital union that was dissolved in 1977.">Michael Billington (critic)">Michael Billington's authorised biography of Pinter (''Harold Pinter'', pp. 271–72). It was the Frasers' marital union that was dissolved in 1977./ref> Her second memoir, ''My History. A Memoir of Growing Up'' was published a few years later.

Marriages and later life

From 1956 until their divorce in 1977, she was married to Sir Hugh Fraser (1918–1984), a descendant of Scottish aristocracy 14 years her senior and a Roman Catholic Conservative Unionist MP in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

(sitting for Stafford), who was a friend of the American Kennedy family."Sir Hugh Fraser Dead; Long a Tory Legislator"
Obituaries, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', 7 March 1984, 13 June 2008. They had six children, including Rebecca Fraser and Flora Fraser. On 22 October 1975, Hugh and Antonia Fraser, together with Caroline Kennedy, who was visiting them at their Holland Park home, in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

, west

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, 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 the cancer researcher Gordon Hamilton Fairley. Fairley, a neighbour of the Frasers, had been walking his dog, when he noticed something amiss and stopped to examine the bomb."Timeline: 1974–75: The Year London Blew Up"
History,

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, 27 August 2007; retrieved 8 April 2009. In 1975, she began an affair with playwright

, who was then married to the actress

Vivien Merchant Ada Brand Thomson (22 July 1929 – 3 October 1982), known professionally as Vivien Merchant, was an English actress. She began her career in 1942, and became known for dramatic roles on stage and in films. In 1956 she married the playwright Ha ...

. 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 in the Roman Catholic Church. Harold Pinter died from cancer on 24 December 2008, aged 78. Fraser lives at Campden Hill Square, in the London district of Holland Park, in 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.Antonia Fraser
"Sofia's Choice"
'' Vanity Fair'', November 2006, Condé Nast Publications; retrieved 9 April 2009.

Honours

Fraser was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the 1999 Birthday Honours and promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to literature. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to literature.

Awards

* James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1969), for her book ''

''. * Wolfson History Prize (1984), for her book ''The Weaker Vessel''. * Crime Writers' Association Macallan Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction (1996), for her book ''The Gunpowder Plot''."Gold Daggers"
, Crime Writers' Association, n.d., 13 June 2008. * St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. * Historical Association Norton Medlicott Medal (2000). * Enid McLeod Literary Prize (2001), from the Franco-British Society, for '' Marie Antoinette''."Enid McLeod Literary Prize"
'' Book Trust'', 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2009.

Works

Non-fiction works

* '' Mary Queen of Scots'' (1969). . ** Reissued, Phoenix paperback, 2001; . ** 40th-anniversary edition, reissued Orion paperback, 7 May 2009; . * ''Dolls'' (1963) * ''A History of Toys'' (1966) * '' Cromwell, Our Chief of Men'' (1973); ** Also published as ''Cromwell: The Lord Protector''. . * ''King James VI and I'' (1974) * ''The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England'' (1975) ditor* ''King Charles II'' (1979) ** Also published as ''Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration'' and ''Charles II''; . * ''Heroes and Heroines'' (1980) * ''The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot in Seventeenth-century England'' (1984) * ''The Warrior Queens: Boadicea's Chariot'' (1988), Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London. ** Also published as ''Warrior Queens: The Legends and Lives of Women Who have led Their Nations in War''. * ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1992); Orion, 1999, . ** Rpt. & updated edition, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2007. ** Also published as the Orion audio-book ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' (November 2006); . ** The illustrated edition is ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Illustrated Edition'' (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996); . ** The first paperback edition is ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' (London: Mandarin, 1993); . ** The 1st American edition is entitled ''The Wives of Henry VIII'' (New York: Knopf, 1992); . * '' The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605'' (1996) ** Also published as ''Faith and Treason: The Gunpowder Plot''; . * ''Marie Antoinette'' (2001); ** Also published with the subtitle '' Marie Antoinette: The Journey'', (2002); . * ''Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King'' (2006); . * ''Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter'' (2010), London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (Orion Books); . ** 1st U.S. edition, New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday; . ** 1st paperback edition London: Phoenix, 2010; ** Also published in audio & digital editions) - "Shortlisted for Galaxy National Book Awards: Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2010."''Must You Go?''
, Shortlist for Non-Fiction Book of The Year award category (Book 5), Galaxy National Book Awards, 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2010. * ''Perilous Question: The Drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832'' (2013); * ''My History. A Memoir of Growing Up'' (2015), New York: Doubleday. * ''Our Israeli Diary: Of That Time, Of That Place'' (2017); * ''The King and the Catholics: The Fight for Rights, 1829'' (2018); * ''The Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton: A 19th Century Heroine Who Wanted Justice for Women'' (2021); * ''Caroline Lamb: A Free Spirit'' (2023);

Historical fiction

* ''King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table'' (1954) * ''Robin Hood'' (1955)

Jemima Shore novels

* ''Quiet as a Nun'' (1977) * ''The Wild Island'' (1978). Also published as ''Tartan Tragedy''. * ''A Splash of Red'' (1981) * ''Cool Repentance'' (1982) * ''Oxford Blood'' (1985) * ''Jemima Shore's First Case'' (1986) * ''Your Royal Hostage'' (1987) * ''The Cavalier Case'' (1990) * ''Jemima Shore at the Sunny Grave'' (1991) * ''Political Death'' (1995) * ''Quiet as a Nun / Tartan Tragedy / Splash of Red'' (omnibus) (2005) * ''Jemima Shore on the Case'' (omnibus) (2006)

Editor

* ''Scottish Love Poems'' (1975) * ''The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England'' (1975) * ''Love Letters'' (1976) * ''The Pleasure of Reading'' (1992) * ''A Red Rose or A Satin Heart'' (2010)

Notes

External links

*
AntoniaFraser.com
' – Official website of Antonia Fraser.
"Antonia Fraser"
– Author webpage at Orion Publishing Group (UK publisher)
"Antonia Fraser"
– Author webpage at Random House (US publisher)
Antonia Fraser
– Client page at Curtis Brown Literary and Talent Agency
"Antonia's Choice"
– In '' Desert Island Discs'' on BBC Radio 4 (first broadcast 27 July 2008)
''Must You Go?'' extract
– "First Night" (Chapter One), Galaxy National Book Awards (Phoenix edn) * Translated Penguin Book – at
Penguin First Editions
reference site of early first edition Penguin Books. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Antonia 1932 births Living people Antonia 20th-century English biographers 20th-century English historians 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English biographers 21st-century English historians 21st-century English memoirists 21st-century English novelists 21st-century English women writers Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford British debutantes British women biographers British women historical novelists British women historians British women mystery writers Converts to Roman Catholicism Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Daughters of Irish earls Daughters of life peers English Roman Catholics English women novelists Fellows of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Harold Pinter James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients Members of the Detection Club Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour People educated at St Mary's School, Ascot People educated at The Dragon School Presidents of the English Centre of PEN Royal biographers Tudor historians Wives of knights Writers from London Wolfson History Prize winners