Antonia Fraser – författare

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November ... With a narrative that grips the reader like a detective story, Antonia Fraser brings the characters and events of the Gunpowder Plot to life. Dramatically recreating the conditions and motives that surrounded the fateful night of 5 November 1605, she unravels the tangled web of religion and politics that spawned the plot.''An excellent book which unravels the whole story of the plot'' Literary Review''Told with impressive scholarship and panache ... with a sense of pace and tension worthy of a John le Carré novel'' Sunday Telegraph

''Drama, betrayal, religion and sex, it''s all here ... Fascinating'' GUARDIAN''Beautifully paced, impeccably written ... Don''t miss it'' INDEPENDENT''Fraser is at her best here, lucid, authoritative and compassionate'' SUNDAY TIMES ''Superbly researched ... the definitive work on the ill-fated queen'' CATHOLIC HERALDMarie Antoinette''s dramatic life-story continues to arouse mixed emotions. To many people, she is still ''la reine méchante'', whose extravagance and frivolity helped to bring down the French monarchy; her indifference to popular suffering epitomised by the (apocryphal) words: ''let them eat cake''. Others are equally passionate in her defence: to them, she is a victim of misogyny.Antonia Fraser examines her influence over the king, Louis XVI, the accusations and sexual slurs made against her, her patronage of the arts which enhanced French cultural life, her imprisonment, the death threats made against her, rumours of lesbian affairs, her trial (during which her young son was forced to testify to sexual abuse by his mother) and her eventual execution by guillotine in 1793.

''Ground-breaking ... One of the greatest international bestsellers of the post-war period'' Andrew Roberts, Daily Telegraph''Reads like an engrossing novel'' Sunday TimesAn infant queen. A teenage widow. Beautiful, flamboyant Mary Queen of Scots had a formidable intellect but her political sense - formed at the absolute court of France - plunged her country into a maelstrom of intrigue, marriage and murder. Upon fleeing to England she was held captive by her cousin Elizabeth I. In this classic biography, reissued for the fiftieth anniversary of its publication, acclaimed historian Antonia Fraser relates the enthralling story of Mary''s life and untimely end.

A unique testimony to modern literature''s most celebrated and enduring marriage.''I first saw Harold across a crowded room, but it was lunchtime, not some enchanted evening, and we did not speak.''When Antonia Fraser met Harold Pinter she was a celebrated biographer and he was Britain''s finest playwright. Both were already married - Pinter to the actress Vivien Merchant and Fraser to the politician Hugh Fraser - but their union seemed inevitable from the moment they met: ''I would have found you somehow'', Pinter told Fraser. Their relationship flourished until Pinter''s death on Christmas Eve 2008 and was a source of delight and inspiration to them both until the very end. Fraser uses her Diaries and her own recollections to tell a touching love story. But this is also a memoir of a partnership between two of the greatest literary talents, with fascinating glimpses into their creativity and their illustrious circle of friends from the literary, political and theatrical world.

The two-year revolution that totally changed how Britain is governed.Internationally bestselling historian Antonia Fraser''s new book brilliantly evokes one year of pre-Victorian political and social history - the passing of the Great Reform Bill of 1832, an eventful and violent year that featured riots in Bristol, Manchester and Nottingham.The time-span of the book is from Wellington''s intractable declaration in November 1830 that ''The beginning of reform is beginning of revolution'' to 7 June 1832, when William IV reluctantly assented to the Great Reform Bill, under the double threat of the creation of 60 new peers in the House of Lords and the threat of revolution throughout the country. Wider themes of Irish and ''negro emancipation'' underscore the narrative.The book is character driven; we learn of the Whig aristocrats prepared to whittle away their own power to bring liberty to the country, the all-too-conservative opposition who included the intransigent Duchess of Kent and Queen Adelaide and finally the ''revolutionaries'' like William Cobbett, author of Rural Rides.These events led to a total change in the way Britain was governed, a two-year revolution that Antonia Fraser brings to vivid dramatic life.

The childhood and early life memoir of Antonia Fraser, one of our finest narrative historians.Antonia Fraser''s magical memoir describes growing up in the 1930s and ''40s, but its real concern is with her growing love of history. A fascination that began with reading Our Island Story and her evacuation to an Elizabethan manor house at the beginning of the Second World War soon developed into an enduring passion, becoming, in her own words, ''an essential part of the enjoyment of life''.My History follows Antonia''s relationship with her family: she was the eldest of eight children. Her parents Frank and Elizabeth Pakenham, later Lord and Lady Longford, were both Labour politicians. Then there are her adventures as a self-made debutante before Oxford University and a fortunate coincidence that leads to her working in publishing. It closes with the publication of her first major historical work, Mary Queen of Scots - a book that became a worldwide bestseller. Told with inimitable humour and style, this is an unforgettable account of one person''s journey towards becoming a writer - and a historian.