Luxury: Strings and strings of false pearls. Her writing is still "place of solitude and a solace".įavourite track: 3rd Movement of Piano Concerto No. She wrote the first of her best selling historical biographies, Mary Queen of Scots in 1969 while the mother of six young children - "the little baby enjoyed the sound of the typewriter".Īlong with her husband, Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, she has been at the centre of London's literati for well over 30 years. The most expensive item the author Lady Antonia Fraser has ever bought herself for fun was a heated swimming pool for her lodge in the Scottish Highlands. Her first job was in publishing, working for George Weidenfeld and then marrying the Tory MP Hugh Fraser. Both her parents stood unsuccessfully as Labour candidates.Īn internationally regarded historian, her best-selling books are credited with bringing the past to life, full of painstakingly researched detail and strong narrative. Her father, Lord Longford, was a classicist and their lives were rich with interesting visitors like John Betjeman, William Beveridge and Isaiah Berlin. With seven brothers and sisters it was, she says, "something of mine". Born Antonia Pakenham, the eldest of eight children, it was while growing up in Oxford that she became fascinated with the past and would make daily trips to the town's library to fuel her passion for history. Kirsty Young's castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is the writer Antonia Fraser.
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