Antonia Fraser

The writing of AF , who published her first book in 1954 and remains active in the early twenty-first century, falls into several distinct categories. She engaged first in children's writing, then in historical scholarship, much of it biographical and concerned with the lives of women in particular, then in detective fiction. She has also published journalism and edited anthologies. Most highly regarded as a historian, she has also had success with her thrillers and recent memoirs.

Milestones

27 August 1932

Antonia Pakenham (later AF ) was born, the eldest in a family which in the end amounted to eight children.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
276

1954

Antonia Pakenham (later AF ) published her earliest book, the children's history King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, written at the behest of her publisher employer.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
276

May 1969

In Mary , Queen of ScotsAF produced a biography based on sound historical scholarship and resolutely sceptical about Mary's romantic appeal, but popular in its empathy and its strong narrative drive.
Whitaker’s Books in Print. J. Whitaker and Sons.
(1988)
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
276

3 May 1984

AF made a new departure and produced arguably her most significant historical study in The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot in Seventeenth Century England.
Blackwell’s Online Bookshop. http://Bookshop.Blackwell.co.uk.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(3 May 1984): 11

Biography

Birth and Family

27 August 1932

Antonia Pakenham (later AF ) was born, the eldest in a family which in the end amounted to eight children.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
276