Lady Antonia Fraser

Lady Antonia Fraser is a British biographer and historical writer who has written biographies of Oliver Cromwell, Marie Antoinette and Charles II amongst other historical figures. The eldest child of the 7th Earl and Countess of Longford, Fraser began her literary career as an ‘all-purpose assistant’ to George Weidenfeld at the Weidenfeld & Nicolson publishing house.

Her first work of biographical history, Mary, Queen of Scots, was published in 1969 and this was followed by numerous other books that combined critical acclaim with page-turning readability; notably on Cromwell and King Charles II. The Weaker Vessel, a study of the role of women in the 17th century won the Wolfson History Prize in 1984, whilst her life of Marie Antoinette (2001) was adapted for the cinema by Sofia Coppola in 2006, with Kirsten Dunst in the title role.

In addition to her historical works, Fraser has penned a series of crime novels centred on the sleuth Jemima Shore and a memoir of her relationship with the playwright Harold Pinter, entitled Must You Go? in 2010.