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Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, (' Pakenham; 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 (1930–2008), and prior to his death was also known as Lady Antonia Pinter.
Mel Gussow Melvyn Hayes "Mel" Gussow (; December 19, 1933 – April 29, 2005) was an American theater critic, movie critic, and author who wrote for '' The New York Times'' for 35 years. Biography Gussow was born in New York City and grew up in Rockville ...

"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 The 7th Earl of Longford (1905–2001) and his wife, Elizabeth, Countess of Longford, '' née'' Elizabeth Harman (1906–2002). As the daughter of an
earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant " chieftain", particu ...
, 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 Harold Pinter", ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...
'', News Corporation, 5 July 2008, 9 April 2009.
she and her siblings converted to Catholicism, 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 Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three ...
, 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,"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 George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld, (13 September 1919 – 20 January 2016) was a British publisher, philanthropist, and newspaper columnist. He was also a lifelong Zionist and renowned as a master networker. He was on good terms with popes, ...
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.
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)."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 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 novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as spe ...
s, the most popular involving a character named Jemima Shore, and they were adapted into the television series ''
Jemima Shore Investigates ''Jemima Shore Investigates'' is a British mystery television series which originally aired in twelve episodes in 1983. It is based on a series of novels by Antonia Fraser about Jemima Shore, a crime-solving television presenter.Brunsdale p.361- ...
'', which aired in the UK in 1983. From 1983 to 1984, she was president of
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
's Sir Walter Scott Club."Our President in 1983/84 was: Lady Antonia Fraser"
biography, ''
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
Sir Walter Scott Club'', n.d. Retrieved 8 April 2009.
Fraser's study, ''The Warrior Queens'' (1989), is an account of military royal women since the days of
Boadicea Boudica or Boudicca (, known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, and in Welsh as ()), was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. She ...
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 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 The St. Louis Literary Award has been presented yearly since 1967 to a distinguished figure in literature. It is sponsored by the Saint Louis University Library Associates. Winners Past Recipients of the Award: *2023 Neil Gaiman *2022 Arundhat ...
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, with Kirsten Dunst in the title role, and ''Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King'' (2006).


Related experience

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. 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.
Lady Antonia Fraser is a Vice-President of
The London Library The London Library is an independent lending library in London, established in 1841. It was founded on the initiative of Thomas Carlyle, who was dissatisfied with some of the policies at the British Museum Library. It is located at 14 St James' ...
.


Memoir

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."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..html" ;"title="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.">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> At the
Cheltenham Literary Festival ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' Cheltenham Literature Festival, a large-scale international festival of literature held every year in October in the English spa town of Cheltenham, and part of Cheltenham Festivals: also responsible for th ...
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, as this subject has already been extensively covered.


Perspective and criticism

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."


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 (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'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 7 March 1984, 13 June 2008.
They had six children: three sons, Benjamin, Damian, and Orlando; and three daughters,
Rebecca Fraser Rebecca Rose Fraser (born May 1957) is a British writer and broadcaster. She is a former president of the Brontë Society. She is the author of the introductions to the Everyman's Library editions of '' Shirley'' and '' The Professor''. Her ...
, 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 Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
, 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 London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, 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, 27 August 2007; retrieved 8 April 2009.
In 1975, she 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, 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 Vanity Fair may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Literature * Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan * ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray * ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...
'', November 2006, Condé Nast Publications; retrieved 9 April 2009.
Lady Antonia Fraser is a Vice-President of the Royal Stuart Society.


Honours

Fraser was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (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 The New Year Honours 2011 were announced on 31 December 2010 in the United Kingdom,United Kingdom: New Zealand,New Zealand"New Year Honours 2011"(14 January 2011) 2 ''New Zealand Gazette'' 55. The Cook IslandsThe Cook Islands: Grenada,Grenada: ...
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.


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 Library.Loan No. 110B/1–19: Lady Antonia Fraser Archive
, British Library Manuscripts Catalogue, British Library, 1993– , 8 April 2009.
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 Prize (1969), for her book '' Mary, Queen of Scots''. * 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 The St. Louis Literary Award has been presented yearly since 1967 to a distinguished figure in literature. It is sponsored by the Saint Louis University Library Associates. Winners Past Recipients of the Award: *2023 Neil Gaiman *2022 Arundhat ...
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, 1996); 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 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); * ''The Antonia Fraser Collection'' (2013)


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)


See also

* Earl of Longford


Notes


Further reading


Biographies and profiles

* Gussow, Mel
"The Lady Is a Writer"
'' The New York Times Magazine'', 9 September 1984. *
Our President in 1983/84 was: Lady Antonia Fraser
bio at Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club. * Snowman, Daniel
"Lady Antonia Fraser"
'' History Today'' 50.10 (October 2000): 26–28. * Wroe, Nicholas
"Profile: The History Woman"
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'', 24 August 2002.


Interviews and 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 Pinter". ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...
'', 5 July 2008.
"Interviews: Antonia Fraser Peers into the Heart of Louis XIV"
National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
, ''
Weekend Edition ''Weekend Edition'' is a set of American radio news magazine programs produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It is the weekend counterpart to the NPR radio program ''Morning Edition''. It consists of ''Weekend Edition Saturday ...
Saturday'', 11 November 2006. * Leith, Sam.
"Literary Lazing"
''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'', 10 July 2007. * Talese, Nan A.br> Interview with Antonia Fraser
''Random House Books'', 2001. * Weinberg, Kate

''The Daily Telegraph''. 15 Mar. 2008.


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 Antonia may refer to: People * Antonia (name), including a list of people with the name * Antonia gens, a Roman family, any woman of the gens was named ''Antonia'' * Antônia (footballer) * Antônia Melo Entertainment * ''Antonia's Line'', ori ...
20th-century biographers 20th-century English women writers Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford British debutantes British women historians Converts to Roman Catholicism Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire English biographers English historians English memoirists 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 Wives of knights Women biographers Women historical novelists Women mystery writers Writers from London Fraser, Lady Antonia