Author: Antonia Fraser

"Fraser brings a completely sure hand to everything she writes.  A lot of historians have a flair and panache but in the end it turns out that it wasn't 1810 it was 1812...  You never have that with Antonia Fraser.  When she says Marie Antoinette wore green you know that she wore green."
~Amanda Foreman (Quote Source: The Guardian)

Photo Source: Wikipedia

Lady Antonia Fraser, the eldest daughter of the 7th Earl and Countess of Longford, has a colorful life as those who she writes about.  She got married, had children, wrote several very good books, almost got killed by an IRA carbomb, got divorced, got married again, and went on to write even more very good books.

She is said to have promoted history into what it has become today: interesting and accessible.

I have read several books by Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette being the first.  Her books aren't my favorite but I got to say they are the ones that got me into reading biographies.  The information she gives her readers are tremendous and accurate.  She can give you information on what Mary Queen of Scots had for dinner while sailing from France to Scotland.  She writes intellectually, which, I find enjoyable to read.   Her heart for her historical subjects make her extremely sympathetic and much biased.  But maybe those are some of the things that make her books stand out.


Have you read any historical biographies by Antonia Fraser?

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