Saunders, Frances Stonor
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Frances Hélène Jeanne Stonor Saunders
FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...
(born 14 April 1966) is a British journalist and historian.


Early life

Frances Stonor Saunders is the daughter of
Julia Camoys Stonor Julia Maria Cristina Mildred Camoys Stonor (born 19 April 1939) is the eldest daughter of Sherman Stonor, 6th Baron Camoys by his wife Jeanne Stourton, and an author of books about her family claiming to expose long-suppressed family scandals an ...
and Donald Robin Slomnicki Saunders. Her father, who died in 1997, was a Jewish refuge from Bucharest, Romania, born to a British national with Polish and Russian ancestry. Jews named Slomnicki died in the Belzec extermination camp; the fate of two great-aunts Saunders was unable to determine. Her parents divorced when Saunders was eight.


Career

A few years after graduating (in 1987)"Frances Stonor Saunders"
(biography). ''Shadow Company.''
with a first-class honours degree in English from University of Oxford (having studied at St Anne's College), Saunders embarked on a career as a television film-maker. ''Hidden Hands: A Different History of Modernism'', made for Channel 4 in 1995, discussed the connection between American art critics and
Abstract Expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
painters with the
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
. '' Who Paid the Piper?: CIA and the Cultural Cold War'' (1999) (in the USA: ''The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters''), her first book, was developed from her work on the documentary, concentrating on the history of the covertly CIA-funded
Congress for Cultural Freedom The Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) was an anti-communist advocacy group founded in 1950. At its height, the CCF was active in thirty-five countries. In 1966 it was revealed that the CIA was instrumental in the establishment and funding of the ...
. The book won the Royal Historical Society's William Gladstone Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. It has since been published in fifteen languages. Saunders' other works reflects her academic background as a medievalist. In 2005, after some years as the arts editor and associate editor of the '' New Statesman'', Saunders resigned in protest over the sacking of
Peter Wilby Peter John Wilby (born 7 November 1944) is a British journalist. He is a former editor of ''The Independent on Sunday'' and the ''New Statesman''. Early life and career Wilby was educated at Kibworth Beauchamp grammar school in Leicestershire b ...
, the then-editor. In 2004 and 2005 for Radio 3, she presented ''Meetings of Minds'', two three-part series on the meetings of intellectuals at significant points in history. She is also a regular contributor to Radio 3's ''
Nightwaves ''Free Thinking'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as part of their "After Dark" late night programming. The programme is a rebranded version of ''Night Waves'', "Radio 3's flagship arts and ideas programme". ''Night Waves'' was ...
'' and other radio programmes. Her second book, ''Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman'' (in the US: ''The Devil's Broker''), recounts the life and career of John Hawkwood, a condottiere of the 14th century. English-born, Hawkwood (1320–1394) made a notorious career as a participant in the confused and treacherous power politics of the
Papacy The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
, France, and Italy. ''The Woman Who Shot Mussolini'' (2010) is a biography of
Violet Gibson Violet Albina Gibson (31 August 1876 – 2 May 1956) was an Irish woman who attempted to assassinate Benito Mussolini in 1926. She was released without charge but spent the rest of her life in a psychiatric hospital in England. She was the daug ...
, the Anglo-Irish aristocrat who shot
Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
in 1926, wounding him slightly. Of Saunders book, ''The Suitcase: Six Attempts to Cross a Border'', Elisa Segrave wrote in '' The Spectator'': "This is a complex, occasionally frustrating book with fascinating historical nuggets." The author "certainly brings home the anguish of war. She also examines memory, its importance and its unpredictability." James McConnachie wrote in '' The Sunday Times'': "As for that suitcase, it would be unfair to say more. I’ll only warn that the payoff isn’t a Hollywood explosion. It is more an arthouse twist — but one that, like this book, will haunt you." Saunders was awarded the PEN Ackerley Prize for outstanding memoir and autobiography for ''The Suitcase: Six Attempts to Cross a Border'' in July 2022. Saunders was elected as a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...
in 2018."Frances Stonor Saunders."
''
Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...
''. Archived fro
the original.
Accessed January 16, 2020.
She lives in London.


Works


Articles


"Modern art was CIA 'weapon'."
'' The Independent'' (Jun. 14, 2013) (orig. 22 Oct. 1995).
"The Writer and the Valet."
''
London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...
'', vol. 36, no. 18 (Sep. 25, 2014).
"Stuck on the Flypaper: Frances Stonor Saunders on MI5 and the Hobsbawm File."
''
London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...
'', vol. 37, no. 7 (Apr. 9, 2015).
"Where on Earth Are You?"
''
London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...
'', vol. 38, no. 5 (Mar. 3, 2016).
"The Suitcase."
''
London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...
'', vol. 42, no. 15 (Jul. 30, 2020).
"The Suitcase: Part Two."
''
London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...
'', vol. 42, no. 16 (Aug. 3, 2020).
"The Suitcase: Part Three."
''
London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...
'', vol. 42, no. 17 (Sep. 10, 2020).


Books

* '' Who Paid the Piper?: CIA and the Cultural Cold War''. London: Granta (1999). . ** U.S. ed.
''The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters''.
New York: The New Press (2000). .Baumol, William J., and Hilda Baumol
Review of ''The Cultural Cold War'' by Frances Stonor Saunders.
''Journal of Cultural Economics'', vol. 25, no. 1 (Feb. 2001), pp. 73-75. .
* ''Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman''. London:
Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...
(2004). . ** U.S. ed.: ''The Devil's Broker: Seeking Gold, God, and Glory in Fourteenth-Century Italy''. New York: Fourth Estate (2005). .
''The Woman Who Shot Mussolini''.
London:
Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...
(2010). .


Documentaries

* ''Hidden Hands: A Hidden History of Modernism''. London: Channel 4 (1995). 4 episodes. ** Incl. 32-page booklet. .


References


External links


Articles
at MuckRack * *
Frances Stonor Saunders
at
encyclopedia.com Encyclopedia.com (also known as HighBeam Encyclopedia) is an online encyclopedia. It aggregates information from other published dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference works including pictures and videos. History The website was launched by ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saunders, Frances Stonor 1966 births Living people Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford English people of American descent English historians English journalists Writers from London Historians of the Central Intelligence Agency