| Lady Antonia Fraser |
Article Index for Lady |
Website Links For Lady |
Information AboutLady Antonia Fraser |
|
Lady Antonia Fraser (Pinter), CBE (born August 27 , 1932 ) is a British author of history and novels, best known for writing biographies. She is the daughter of The Earl and Countess Of Longford (Frank and Elizabeth Pakenham), who were both eminent writers, Labour supporters and Catholic Converts . Their eight children became child converts to the Catholic Church . As the daughter of an Earl, Antonia Fraser is entitled to be called "Lady Antonia." LIFE AND CAREER Lady Antonia was educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford . Her first major work was '' Mary, Queen Of Scots '' ( 1969 ). She followed it up with various other biographies, including ''Cromwell, Our Chief of Men'' ( 1973 ). She won the Wolfson History Award in 1984 for ''The Weaker Vessel'', a study of women's lives in 17th Century England . She was President of English PEN from 1988 to 89 , and was Chairman of its Writers in Prison Committee. In addition, she writes Detective Novel s, with the most popular involving a character named Jemima Shore . A television series based on these stories was aired in the UK in 1983 . More recently, Lady Antonia published ''The Warrior Queens'', the story of various military royal women since the days of Boadicea and Cleopatra . In 1992 she published ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII''. It was published only a year after Alison Weir 's book of the same title, though academics felt that Fraser's work was the more impartial. Fraser later published ''The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605''. Her most recent work is an acclaimed and in-depth biography of France 's last legitimate queen, Marie Antoinette . ''Marie Antoinette'' is apparently being adapted for film by Sofia Coppola , with the title role being played by Kirsten Dunst . Fraser has also served as the editor for many monarchical biographies, including those featured in the ''Kings and Queens of England'' and ''Royal History of England'' series. PERSONAL LIFE In 1956 , Lady Antonia married Sir Hugh Fraser , a Catholic MP when she found out she was pregnant with his child. They had three sons — Benjamian ("Benjy"), Damian, and Orlando — and three daughters — Rebecca, Flora, and Natasha. Sir Hugh was a Conservative Unionist MP in the House Of Commons , sitting for Stafford . Sir Hugh and Lady Antonia, together with Caroline Kennedy who was visiting at the time, were almost blown up by an IRA car bomb on October 23 1975 . However, the bomb exploded prematurely, instead killing another motorist, the well-respected cancer researcher Dr. Gordon Hamilton-Fairley . As a Catholic, Lady Antonia caused a public scandal in 1977 by leaving her husband for playwright Harold Pinter and the satirical magazine '' Private Eye '' for some years routinely referred to her as "Lady Magnesia Freelove". Pinter's then-wife, the actress Vivien Merchant , spoke publicly of her distress at his abandonment of her and made cutting remarks about Fraser in the press, including the famous comment that "she has very big feet". Fraser and Pinter married in 1980 , when Pinter and Merchant's divorce was finalized, and they lived in Holland Park , west London . Two of Lady Antonia's daughters, Rebecca Fraser and Flora Fraser , have also written historical biographies. BIBLIOGRAPHY Non-Fiction Works
Jemima Shore Novels
Anthologies EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|