Quotes by Antonia Fraser

About Antonia Fraser:

Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and prior to his death was also known as Antonia Pinter.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Though Charles II both craved and enjoyed female companionship till the end of his life, there is no question that by the cold, rainy autumn of 1682 his physical appetites had diminshed considerably. The Duchess of Portsmouth was, after all, more tha...

Antonia Fraser

Darnley, who, like Banquo's ghost, seemed to play a much more effective part in Scottish politics once he was dead than when he was alive.

Antonia Fraser

[In 16th century European society] Marriage was the triumphal arch through which women, almost without exception, had to pass in order to reach the public eye. And after marriage followed, in theory, the total self-abnegation of the woman.

Antonia Fraser

The concentration in my book on Marie Antoinette's childhood and on her family influences. It is surprising how some books actually start with her arrival in France!

Antonia Fraser

I am re-reading Henry James as a change from history. I began with Daisy Miller, and I've just finished Washington Square. What a brilliant, painful book.

Antonia Fraser

My advantage as a woman and a human being has been in having a mother who believed strongly in women's education. She was an early undergraduate at Oxford, and her own mother was a doctor.

Antonia Fraser

I think there has been a great deal of valuable revisionism in women's history.

Antonia Fraser

I'm very interested in good and evil and the moral natures of people.

Antonia Fraser

I have no plans for a future Jemima Shore mystery, but would write one tomorrow if a good idea came to me.

Antonia Fraser

I think mine is the fullest and most plausible account of what went on in Marie Antoinette's life.

Antonia Fraser

Mary Queen of Scots was my first love, and that is always something special.

Antonia Fraser

King Charles II liked women's company and well as making love to them.

Antonia Fraser

We are privileged. There are poor people out there. We must to do something to make them privileged.

Antonia Fraser

That is my major concern: writers who are in prison for writing.

Antonia Fraser

People in my books tend to get their just deserts, even if not at the hands of the police.

Antonia Fraser

Normally I make myself swim, do exercises. For zest I like going to the cinema.

Antonia Fraser

My mother, who was quite sharp when I was young, became utterly mild.

Antonia Fraser

My mother was a politician in my formative years.

Antonia Fraser

The clue to book jacket photography is to look friendly and approachable, but not too glamorous.

Antonia Fraser

I'm glad I was never an heiress.

Antonia Fraser

Author Bio

  • NameAntonia Fraser
  • DescriptionBritish author and novelist
  • AliasesAntonia Margaret Caroline Pakenham; Antonia Pakenham; Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser; Antonia Pinter
  • BornAugust 27, 1932
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionHistorian; Author
  • AwardsDame Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire; James Tait Black Memorial Prize