Lady Antonia Fraser Summary

The English writer Lady Antonia Fraser (born 1932), was a popular biographer, historian, and mystery novelist.Lady Antonia Fraser was born on August 27, 1932, in London, England. She was the daughter ... Read more

Although Lady Antonia Fraser is best known as an historian with a strong interest in biography and women's studies, she has also written a series of elaborately plotted mystery novels featuring televi... Read more

Critical Essay by V. G. Kiernan Women have been great purveyors of historical novels, but [Mary, Queen of Scots] is emphatically not one of them. Everything in it is carefully documented, and what is... Read more

Critical Essay by Shirley Strum Kenny Antonia Fraser's King James VI of Scotland, I of England is a tribute to the king and to the age. At political matters, however, James was not adept, and ... Read more

Critical Essay by Peter Stansky There have been comparatively few biographies of Charles II, and Lady Antonia makes up for the lack [in Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration]. She is refreshi... Read more

Critical Essay by W. D. Blackmon Antonia Fraser, undaunted by the overwhelming weight of historical opinion, sets out in her latest book [Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration] to do what Cha... Read more

Critical Essay by Harriet Waugh The first mystery in Antonia Fraser's detective novel, Cool Repentance, is why it is not set in Ireland. The characters give off such a strong whiff of decadent... Read more

Critical Essay by Lois Potter The Weaker Vessel is a celebration, not a lament. The women whose lives fill its crowded pages include not only royal mistresses, actresses, great heiresses, and the rar... Read more

Critical Essay by Roy Strong It is a long time since we had a fully fledged biography of Mary Queen of Scots, and this splendid new one by Antonia Fraser (Mary Queen of Scots) … is full of sur... Read more

Critical Essay by Keith Thomas Cromwell's career is traced in great detail [in Cromwell: Our Chief of Men; published in the United States as Cromwell: The Lord Protector]: from the first dishe... Read more

Critical Essay by C. V. Wedgwood Antonia Fraser's richly detailed biography ["Cromwell: The Lord Protector"] does full justice to Cromwell's public career. She is particul... Read more

Critical Essay by David Underdown Antonia Fraser's massive biography, "Cromwell: The Lord Protector," attempts, she tells us, to rescue the personality of Oliver Cromwell from th... Read more

In the following interview, Fraser discusses her writing life and her crime fiction. During an early spring evening in London, when the daffodils in the square across the way are just beginning to ... Read more

In the following review, Bliven examines the characteristics of the historical figures outlined by Fraser in The Warrior Queens and comments on their significance. Antonia Fraser's The Warri... Read more

In the following essay Angelo presents details of Fraser's life and records comments on Fraser's crime fiction and historical work. She is the kind of woman Maureen O'Hara used... Read more

In the following review, Worden comments on Fraser's previous work and examines the style and content of The Six Wives of Henry VIII. It is a surprise to realise that Antonia Fraser has not ... Read more

In the following review of The Wives of Henry VIII, Cole examines the intricate individual stories that make up the work. In this new study of King Henry VIII and his wives [entitled The Wives of H... Read more

In the following review, Yoder comments on Fraser's portrayal of her subject in King James: VI of Scotland, I of England. Having bracketed the fascinating figure of James I in previous biogr... Read more

In the following review, Gussow investigates Fraser's ideas on the research she conducted for Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot. While writers as diverse as John le Carr�... Read more

In the following review of Quiet as a Nun, James comments on Fraser's handling of the elements of crime fiction. Antonia Fraser is the latest recruit to the ranks of established writers who ... Read more

In the following review, Quilligan contemplates the ideas on women and society that arise from Fraser's Weaker Vessel. The Weaker Vessel, Lady Antonia Fraser's study of women in seven... Read more

In the following review, Browning scrutinizes The Weaker Vessel and comments on its strengths and failings. [The Weaker Vessel] teems with entertaining stories: Ann Fanshaw braves the turbulent sea... Read more