Antonia Fraser

Standard Name: Fraser, Antonia
Birth Name: Antonia Pakenham
Styled: Lady Antonia Pakenham
Married Name: Lady Antonia Fraser
Married Name: Lady Antonia Pinter
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.
Black-and-white portrait photo of Antonia Fraser, 23 January 1969. She has long blonde hair which is half-up, and wears a white blouse with a lacy collar under a dark vest. She has long lower eyelashes.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Occupation Rebecca West
The prize went to P. H. Newby 's Something to Answer For, which according to Kermode years later was a compromise decision. Dame Rebecca didn't dislike it as much as nearly all the others...
Cultural formation Marina Warner
In England, MW had a comfortable middle-class upbringing. Her godfather was crime reformer Lord Longford (father of historian and novelist Antonia Fraser ). A writer, Violet Trefusis , was her godmother and another novelist, Lawrence Durrell
Publishing Anthony Trollope
Doctor Thorne, the third novel in the series, was published by Smith Elder in 1858.
Sutherland, John. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press.
191
Ruth Rendell wrote an introduction to a Penguin edition in 1991. The fourth in the series, Framley Parsonage...
Textual Production Emma Tennant
On the recommendation of Lady Antonia Fraser , ET was commissioned by St Martin's Press to write the second sequel to Margaret Mitchell 's American classic, Gone With the Wind.
Lyall, Sarah. “It’s hard to keep a good sequel secret”. New York Times, p. C1, C12.
C1, C12
Lyall, Sarah. “Book sequel creates a new civil war”. New York Times, p. D7.
D7
Publishing Emma Tennant
ET , who had been taken on in an attempt to avoid negative reviews like those that had plagued Alexandra Ripley 's sequel, Scarlett, 1991, finished the book four months ahead of schedule, but...
Reception Agnes Strickland
Lives of the Queens of England was frequently reprinted with additions and revisions; the 1852 edition, regarded as definitive, was reprinted in 1972 with an introduction by the Stricklands' fellow-biographer Antonia Fraser . Fraser 's...
Residence Vita Sackville-West
In March 1975 Antonia Fraser visited Sissinghurst and wrote in her diary: Slept in Vita's bedroom, cold but grand. No ghosts.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go?. Random House of Canada.
54
Friends, Associates Ruth Rendell
Winterson said, She was the mother I never had—wise, benign, loving and always there.
Brooks, Libby. “Ruth Rendell: Dark lady of whodunnits”. The Guardian, pp. 16-19.
19
RR 's other literary friends included Antonia Fraser and P. D. James . Her friendship with Peter Kemp dated from...
Family and Intimate relationships Harold Pinter
HP and the writer Lady Antonia Fraser fell in love early in 1975. He told his wife, Vivien Merchant, about this in late March and a month later moved out of their shared home to...
Dedications Harold Pinter
HP 's Poems and Prose, 1949-1977 was published in 1978 (dedicated to Antonia Fraser ) and revised as Collected Poems and Prose in 1986.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go?. Random House of Canada.
89
Textual Features Harold Pinter
The characters, Hirst, an established, even establishment writer, and Spooner, a minor poet, are named after famous cricketers, according to Pinter's frequent practice in other works as well.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go?. Random House of Canada.
22
Antonia Fraser explained this play (to...
Literary responses Harold Pinter
The final speech in A Kind of Alaska made Antonia Fraser (seeing it in the theatre for at least the second time) begin to sob, and continue to weep uncontrollably after the curtain came down...
Textual Features Harold Pinter
Antonia Fraser called The Rooma savage, melancholy play which ends in appalling on stage physical violence. None of Pinter's other mature plays do this: he learned to keep the violence either offstage or in...
Literary responses Harold Pinter
He had heard the news of the award on 13 October, and soon learned that it had transformed his life into that of a celebrity. He was too ill to travel to Stockholm for the...
Family and Intimate relationships Harold Pinter
HP intended to marry Antonia Fraser on the eve of his fiftieth birthday, but at the last moment Vivien Merchant refused to sign the decree absolute.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go?. Random House of Canada.
120-1

Timeline

1 January 1916: The British edition of Vogue (an American...

Building item

1 January 1916

The British edition of Vogue (an American fashion magazine) began publishing from Condé Nast in Hanover Square, London.

23 April 1975: A major demonstration was held in Belgrave...

Writing climate item

23 April 1975

A major demonstration was held in Belgrave Square, London, in support of Public Lending Right.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go?. Random House of Canada.
16

1984: The Authors' Foundation was set up to make...

Writing climate item

1984

The Authors' Foundation was set up to make awards to writers: it marked the centenary of the Society of Authors and had help from the Royal Literary Fund ; it had Antonia Fraser and Michael Holroyd

Texts

Fraser, Antonia. “A Most Superior Street”. Spectator.co.uk. Champagne for the brain.
Fraser, Antonia. A Splash of Red. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981.
Fraser, Antonia. Boadicea’s Chariot: The Warrior Queens. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988.
Fraser, Antonia. Cool Repentance. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982.
Fraser, Antonia. Cromwell: Our Chief of Men. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973.
Fraser, Antonia, editor. “Introduction”. The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, Wiedenfeld and Nicholson, 1975, pp. 9-18.
Fraser, Antonia. Jemima Shore at the Sunny Grave and Other Stories. Bloomsbury, 1991.
Fraser, Antonia. Jemima Shore’s First Case and Other Stories. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1986.
Fraser, Antonia. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Heirloom Library, 1954.
Fraser, Antonia. King James VI of Scotland, I of England. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974.
Fraser, Antonia. Marie Antoinette: The Journey. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2001.
Fraser, Antonia. Mary, Queen of Scots. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969.
Fraser, Antonia. Mary, Queen of Scots. Franklin Library, 1981.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go?. Random House of Canada, 2010.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go?. Weidenfeld, 2010.
Fraser, Antonia. My History. Orion, 2015.
Fraser, Antonia. “Optical Research”. Lives for Sale: Biographers’ Tales, edited by Mark Bostridge, Continuum, 2004, pp. 113-17.
Fraser, Antonia. Our Israeli Diary. Oneworld Publications, 2017.
Fraser, Antonia. Oxford Blood. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985.
Fraser, Antonia. Political Death. Heinemann, 1994.
Fraser, Antonia. Quiet as a Nun. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977.
Fraser, Antonia. The Cavalier Case. Bloomsbury, 1990.
Fraser, Antonia. The Gunpowder Plot: Terror & Faith in 1605. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1996.
Fraser, Antonia. The King and the Catholics. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2018.
Fraser, Antonia. The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1992.