Fraser, Antonia (1932-…), is a British writer whose books reflect her interest in English and Scottish history and literature. Fraser is also a popular author of detective stories.
Fraser’s first book—published under her maiden name, Antonia Pakenham—was King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1954), an examination of the Arthurian legend. Fraser has specialized in the British monarchy in the 1500’s and 1600’s. In 1969, she published a biography of Mary, Queen of Scots. She followed this with biographies of Oliver Cromwell (1973), King James VI of Scotland and I of England (1974), and King Charles II (1979).
Fraser’s other historical works include A History of Toys (1966), The Weaker Vessel (1984), The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1992, published in the United States as The Wives of Henry VIII), and The Gunpowder Plot (1996, published in the United States as Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot). She also wrote Marie Antoinette: The Journey (2001), a biography of the French queen. Fraser edited The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England (1975, revised 1988).
In 1977, Fraser wrote Quiet as a Nun, the first in a series of detective stories. The stories center on the amateur detective Jemima Shore. Fraser has also written television plays and compiled anthologies of romantic poetry and love letters.
Antonia Pakenham was born in London on Aug. 27, 1932. She was a daughter of Francis and Elizabeth Pakenham, the Earl and Countess of Longford. Fraser was educated at Oxford University, receiving a B.A. in 1953. In 1956, she married a member of Parliament, Sir Hugh Fraser, and began writing under her married name. The couple divorced in 1977, and in 1980 Fraser married the English playwright Harold Pinter. She is also known as Antonia Pinter. In 1999, Queen Elizabeth II awarded her the title Commander of the British Empire.
