Antonia Fraser Books In Order

Jemima Shore Books In Publication Order

  1. Quiet as a Nun (1977)
  2. The Wild Island (1978)
  3. A Splash of Red (1981)
  4. Cool Repentance (1982)
  5. Oxford Blood (1985)
  6. Jemima Shore’s First Case (1986)
  7. Your Royal Hostage (1987)
  8. The Cavalier Case (1990)
  9. Jemima Shore at the Sunny Grave (1991)
  10. Political Death (1994)

Medieval Women Boxset Books In Publication Order

  1. Mary Queen of Scots (1969)
  2. The Weaker Vessel (1984)
  3. The Warrior Queens (1988)

A Royal History of England Books In Publication Order

  1. The Tudors (2000)
  2. The Houses of Hanover and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (2000)
  3. The House of Windsor (With: Andrew Roberts) (2000)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1954)
  2. Robin Hood (1971)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. Pleasures & Treasures: Dolls (1967)
  2. A History of Toys (1972)
  3. Dolls (1973)
  4. Cromwell (1973)
  5. Mary Queen of Scots and the Historians (1974)
  6. King James, VI of Scotland, I of England (1974)
  7. The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England (1975)
  8. Royal Charles (1979)
  9. King Charles II (1979)
  10. Heroes and Hero*ines (1980)
  11. The Pleasure of Reading (1992)
  12. The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1995)
  13. Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot (1996)
  14. Marie Antoinette (2001)
  15. Love and Louis XIV (2006)
  16. Must You Go? (2010)
  17. Perilous Question (2013)
  18. My History: A Memoir of Growing Up (2015)
  19. Our Israeli Diary – Of That Time, Of That Place (2017)
  20. The King and the Catholics (2018)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. Scottish Love Poems (1975)
  2. Love Letters (1977)
  3. Women of Mystery (1992)
  4. Female Sleuths (1993)
  5. 2nd Culprit (1993)
  6. Crime Movies II (1997)
  7. A Red Rose Or A Satin Heart (2010)

Jemima Shore Book Covers

Medieval Women Boxset Book Covers

A Royal History of England Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Non-Fiction Book Covers

Anthologies Book Covers

Antonia Fraser Books Overview

Quiet as a Nun

‘A judicious mixture of puzzle, excitement, and terror.’ P.D. James When a murder takes place in a secluded tower at Blessed Eleanor’s Convent in Sussex and the victim is an old school friend, Britain’s most popular TV reporter Jemima Shore finds herself in the middle of a disturbing puzzle. The dead woman, a nun, was to inherit one of the largest fortunes in Britain. Jemima walks into the eye of a worldly storm of fear and the more she learns, the clearer it becomes that more lives, including her own, are being threatened. Quiet as a Nun was a PBS Mystery! television presentation.

The Wild Island

As Jemima Shore, Investigator, arrives at Inverness Station for a Highland holiday, the sun is shining. Paradise, she thinks. But at that moment, she hears a voice: ‘All this way for a funeral.’ So begins an adventure far removed from Jemima’s visions of heather covered hills, crystal clear streams, romantic men in kilts, fairy tale castles. Instead she is plunged into the strange world of the aristocratic Beauregard family with its tensions, jealousies and violence. The setting is The Wild Island itself, sometimes enchanting but too often frighteningly remote, the streams, not silvery, but brown and sinister; her holiday home with its disturbing influence; the people none of them quite what they seem.

A Splash of Red

Back in print Antonia Fraser’s third Jemima Shore mystery, in which the intrepid and glamorous detective confronts sinister doings in a Bloomsbury penthouse. Everyone loved Chloe Fontaine. Tiny and exquisitely pretty, her fragile looks hid a considerable talent as a novelist. She had had a series of admirers, lovers, and husbands ever since her arrival in literary London. Her friends sometimes remarked on the odd contrast of her disorderly private life and the careful formality of her work, yet it hardly seemed to matter when even the critics doted on her. When Chloe strangely and suddenly disappears one hot summer day, Jemima Shore, who is left in charge of her flat, must find out why before it is too late.

Cool Repentance

Celebrated actress Christabel Cartwright trades her country house, its staff of servants, and her husband for a reckless affair. She also thought she could resume her career her director was delighted, and so was Megalith Television. But one person in Christabel’s circle had doubts. What happens next is murder, and it brings Jemima Shore, the author’s elegant alter ego, into the fray. She trails her man or is it woman? through the thickets of human emotion. ‘Glorious fun…
the ending is genuinely surprising.’ The Spectator

Oxford Blood

‘With deft, wry prose and a credible plot, Fraser holds our interest and leaves us clamoring for more Jemima Shore mysteries.’ Publishers WeeklyIn this tale Jemima is reluctantly shooting a TV expos ‘Golden Lads and Girls’ on the exotic lifestyles of overprivileged undergraduates. Among them is Lord Saffron, the wealthy, twenty year old heir to the former foreign secretary. When a confession by a dying midwife throws Saffron’s birth and bloodline into doubt, Jemima’s interest in the documentary perks up considerably. Then a student is murdered, drawing Jemima into a case that will demand the utmost of her skills of detection.

The Cavalier Case

Bestselling author Fraser combines her passion for history with her wickedly readable fiction in her most glittering Jemima Shore mystery yet. It seems a 17 century viscount has been stepping out of his portrait just before the violent death of his 16th successor. While a bitter family feud ensues and the body count rises, Shore hopes to unmask a flesh and blood killer.

Jemima Shore at the Sunny Grave

A collection of short stories by the author of Mary, Queen of Scots and other historical novels and biographies features the star of the author’s previous Jemima Shore mystery novels and two television series.

Political Death

When the wayward lady Imogen Swain summons journalist Jemima Shore to her home, Jemima once again finds herself in the thick of love affairs old and new intrigue, and betrayal. For the colorful Lady Imogen kept diaries documenting her passionate affair with a rising young politician who has since risen to high ranks in the government. Increasingly eccentric as the years have passed, Lady Imogen now threatens to reveal details of the affair, and of the subsequent and unsolved disappearance of a young journalist. Jemima’s meeting with Lady Imogen is the first step in a sinister series of events which will remind the reader why Antonia Fraser is the reigning queen of murder British style!

Mary Queen of Scots

More than four hundred years after her death, Mary Queen of Scots remains one of the most romantic and controversial figures in British history. Antonia Fraser’s classic biography of her won the James Tait Prize when it was first published in 1969, became an international bestseller and was translated into nine languages. Mary passed her childhood in France and married the Dauphin to become Queen of France at the age of sixteen. Widowed less than two years later, she returned to Scotland as Queen after an absence of thirteen years. Her life then entered its best known phas: the early struggles with John Knox, and the unruly Scottish nobility; the fatal marriage to Darnley and his mysterious death; her marriage to Bothwell, the chief suspect, that led directly to her long English captivity at the hands of Queen Elizabeth; the poignant and extraordinary story of her long imprisonment that ended with the labyrinthine Babington plot to free her, and her execution at the age of forty four. Antonia Fraser’s biography, four years in the writing, enters fully into the life of an historical figure who continues to capture the popular imagination, and provides a moving answer to the question, What was Mary Queen of Scots really like?’ Lady Antonia Fraser tells Mary’s story movingly and yet witih scholarship, insight and balance. It is the sort of biography of Mary which has long been needed.’ The Scotsman A fluent narrative style, a perfect eye for physical detail, a rich sense of the black comedy that the period demands and a high feeling for the central tragedy’ Sunday Times

The Weaker Vessel

Just how weak were the women of the Civil War era? What could they expect beyond marriage and childbirth in an age where infant and maternal mortality was frequent and contraception unknown? Did anyone marry for love? Could a woman divorce? What rights had the unmarried? What expectations the widowed? An expert on the period, Antonia Fraser brings to life the many and various women she has encountered in her considerable research: governesses, milkmaids, fishwives, nuns, defenders of castles, courtesans, countesses, witches and widows. Consistently interesting, funny, touching and thought provoking to read: a fresh angle of vision has given her a fresh view of the private life of the seventeenth century, and she conveys it with skill.’ Spectator A work of great technical assurance…
she writes with a consistent warmth, wit, modesty, conviction on a subject which will be a revelation to almost anyone’ The Times A distinguished and graceful book, packed with interesting information’ Observer

The Warrior Queens

In this panoramic work of history, Lady Antonia Fraser looks at women who led armies and empires: Cleopatra, Isabella of Spain, Jinga Mbandi, Margaret Thatcher, and Indira Gandhi, among others.

The Houses of Hanover and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

Beginning with the reign of George I, this volume goes on to discuss the life and rule of Queen Victoria, whose seventy years on the throne saw the zenith of Britain’s power abroad and a changing world at home. About the series A Royal History of England: From the beginning of monarchical power in Norman times to the present queen, the British royal family has experienced many scandals, triumphs, and changes in public image, but few of their reigns can be described as uneventful. With contributions by specialist authors and contemporary illustrations of royal heraldry and coats of arms, Antonia Fraser has edited a definitive and entertaining history of one of the most powerful monarchies in the world.

The House of Windsor (With: Andrew Roberts)

The House of Windsor has undergone profound changes since its inception in 1917. Their tenure has seen two world wars, an abdication, and undreamed of social change, but still the monarchy prevails. Andrew Roberts traces their history to the tragic death of the Princess of Wales and its aftermath. About the series A Royal History of England:From the beginning of monarchical power in Norman times to the present queen, the British royal family has experienced many scandals, triumphs, and changes in public image, but few of their reigns can be described as uneventful. With contributions by specialist authors and contemporary illustrations of royal heraldry and coats of arms, Antonia Fraser has edited a definitive and entertaining history of one of the most powerful monarchies in the world.

Cromwell

In Cromwell, award winning biographer Antonia Fraser tells of one of England’s most celebrated and controversial figures, often misunderstood and demonized as a puritanical zealot. Oliver Cromwell rose from humble beginnings to spearhead the rebellion against King Charles I, who was beheaded in 1649, and led his soldiers into the last battle against the Royalists and King Charles II at Worcester, ending the civil war in 1651. Fraser shows how England’s prestige and prosperity grew under Cromwell, reversing the decline it had suffered since Queen Elizabeth I’s death.

King James, VI of Scotland, I of England

When King James VI of Scotland inherited the throne of England in 1603 he had ruled his native land almost as long as had Queen Elizabeth. He showed both vision and determination in pursuing his major political goals: a united Britain, and a foreign policy based on peace rather than bellicose chauvinism. Of course, there was a darker side: in the face of growing Parliamentary opposition, he would need all his celebrated wisdom to prevent open conflict. This book is a sympathetic portrait of a worthy first king of Great Britain.

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England

This essential reference is a concise, accessible guide to the great dynasties of English royalty. A collection of biographical sketches that encompas*ses the period from the establishment of monarchical power by the early Norman kings through the reign of Elizabeth II, The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England tells the stories of many monarchs and their colorful lives some merry, some cruel, some heroic, others sinister. Antonia Fraser and a collection of distinguished contributors bring the people and events to life in this lavishly illustrated volume that is both engrossing history and an excellent reference tool. This updated edition includes a new essay describing the recently tumultuous reign of the Windsors. Included are details of the weddings of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, and of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson; the acrimonious collapse of the marriages; the effect the media have had on the royal family’s image; and the fire at Windsor Castle. Such recent events as Diana’s tragic death, the decom missioning of the Royal Yacht Britannia, and the launching of Queen Elizabeth’s own website are also discussed. Accompanying the text are 175 contemporary illustrations and drawings of the royal coats of arms, with their significance explained by J.P. Brooke Little, Richmond Herald of Arms. This is a dazzling story of a thousand years of English history, as told through the lives and deeds of the nation’s sovereigns.

Royal Charles

Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration by Fraser, Antonia

King Charles II

Following a youth of poverty and bitter exile after his father’s execution, the ousted king first challenged, then made his magnificent escape from, Cromwell’s troops before he was eventually restored to his throne in triumph in 1660. Spanning his life both before and after the Restoration, Antonia Fraser’s lively and fascinating biography captures all the vitality of the man and the expansiveness of the age. ‘Detailed, sympathetic, and admirably readable’ ECONOMIST

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

The Six Wives of Henry VIII Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr have become defined in a popular sense not so much by their lives as by the way these lives ended. But, as Antonia Fraser conclusively proves, they were rich and feisty characters. They may have been victims of Henry’s obsession with a male heir, but they were not willing victims. On the contrary, they displayed considerable strength and intelligence at a time when their sex supposedly possessed little of either.

Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot

With a narrative that grips the reader like a detective story, Antonia Fraser brings the characters and events of the Gunpowder Plot to life. Dramatically recreating the conditions and motives that surrounded the fateful night of 5 November 1605, she unravels the tangled web of religion and politics that spawned the plot. ‘Told with impressive scholarship and panache…
The result is a narrative that is clear, balanced, and builds to its denouement with a sense of pace and tension worthy of a John le Carre novel’ John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph

Marie Antoinette

Never before has the life of Marie Antoinette been told so intimately and with such authority as in Antonia Fraser’s newest work, Marie Antoinette: The Journey. Famously known as the eighteenth century French queen whose excesses have become legend, Marie Antoinette was blamed for instigating the French Revolution. But the story of her journey begun as a fourteen year old sent from Vienna to marry the future Louis XVI to her courageous defense before she was sent to the guillotine reveals a woman of greater complexity and character than we have previously understood. We stand beside Marie Antoinette and witness the drama of her life as she becomes a scapegoat of the Ancien Regime when her faults were minor in comparison to the punishments inflicted on her. The youngest daughter, fifteenth out of sixteen children, of Austrian empress Maria Teresa and Francis I, Marie Antoinette was sent on a literal journey by her mother from Vienna to Versailles with the expectation that she would further Austrian interests at all times. Yet, Marie Antoinette was by nature far from interested in state affairs and much more inclined to exert a gracious, philanthropic role, patronizing the arts especially music, as royalty would come to behave in the nineteenth century. Despite this the French accused her of political interference and wrote scandalous tracts against her, mocking her lack of sophistication. Meanwhile, longing for a family and the birth of an heir who would have cemented the Franco Austro alliance, the French queen had to endure more than eight years of public humiliation for her barren marriage before the delivery of her first of four children. As these problems unfold, Antonia Fraser also weaves a richly detailed account of Marie Antoinette s other, more poignant journey: from the ill educated and unprepared girl who sought refuge in pleasure as a consolation into a magnificent, courageous woman who defied her enemies at her trial with consummate intelligence, arousing the admiration of even the most hostile revolutionaries. Brilliantly written, Marie Antoinette is a work of impeccable scholarship. Drawing on a wealth of family letters and other archival materials, Antonia Fraser successfully avoids the hagiography of some the French queen s admirers and the misogyny of many of her critics. The result is an utterly riveting and intensely moving book by one of our finest biographers.

Love and Louis XIV

The superb historian and biographer Antonia Fraser, author of Marie Antoinette, casts new light on the splendor and the scandals of the reign of Louis XIV in this dramatic, illuminating look at the women in his life. The self proclaimed Sun King, Louis XIV ruled over the most glorious and extravagant court in seventeenth century Europe. Now, Antonia Fraser goes behind the well known tales of Louis’s accomplishments and follies, exploring in riveting detail his intimate relationships with women. The king s mother, Anne of Austria, had been in a childless marriage for twenty two years before she gave birth to Louis XIV. A devout Catholic, she instilled in her son a strong sense of piety and fought successfully for his right to absolute power. In 1660, Louis married his first cousin, Marie Th r se, in a political arrangement. While unfailingly kind to the official Queen of Versailles, Louis sought others to satisfy his romantic and sexual desires. After a flirtation with his sister in law, his first important mistress was Louise de La Valli re, who bore him several children before being replaced by the tempestuous and brilliant Ath na s, marquise de Montespan. Later, when Ath na s s reputation was tarnished, the King continued to support her publicly as Ath na s left court for a life of repentance. Meanwhile her children s governess, the intelligent and seemingly puritanical Fran oise de Maintenon, had already won the King s affections; in a relationship in complete contrast to his physical obsession with Ath na s, Louis XIV lived happily with Madame de Maintenon for the rest of his life, very probably marrying her in secret. When his grandson s child bride, the enchanting Adelaide of Savoy, came to Versaille she lightened the King s last years until tragedy struck. With consummate skill, Antonia Fraser weaves insights into the nature of women s religious lives as well as such practical matters as contraception into her magnificent, sweeping portrait of the king, his court, and his ladies. From the Hardcover edition.

Must You Go?

The subtitle of this wonderful memoir declares its contents: this is ‘my life with Harold Pinter’, not Lady Antonia Fraser’s complete life, and certainly not his. In essence, it is a love story and as with many love stories, the beginning and the end, the first light and the twilight, are dealt with more fully than the high noon in between. The result is a marvellously insightful testimony to modern literature’s most celebrated marriage, between the greatest playwright of the age and a beautiful and famous prize winning biographer. Must You Go?? is based partly on Antonia Fraser’s own diaries, which she has kept since October 1968 when she suffered from withdrawal symptoms after finishing her first historical biography, Mary Queen of Scots. Antonia Fraser has also used her own recollections, both immediate reactions she always writes her Diary the next morning, unless otherwise noted and memories. She has quoted Pinter where he told her things about his past, once again noting the source, and has occasionally quoted his friends talking to her on the same subject. Intriguingly her Diaries always pay special attention to any green shoots where Pinter’s writing is concerned, perhaps a consequence of a biographer living with a creative artist and observing the process first hand. Harold Pinter and Antonia Fraser lived together from August 1975 until his death thirty three years later on Christmas Eve 2008. ‘O! call back yesterday, bid time return,’ cries one of his courtiers to Richard II. This is Antonia Fraser’s uniquely compelling way of doing so

Scottish Love Poems

First published in 1994 and now available in paperback, a personal selection of Scottish Love Poems by writers such as Burns, Byron and MacDiarmid, together with a number by present day poets.

Love Letters

Color & b&w photos & illus. throughout. 7 1/4 x 10.

Women of Mystery

A diverse collection of stories of drama and suspense from writers such as Ruth Rendell, Sara Paretsky and Mary Higgins Clark. From cops to private eyes to ordinary people caught up in extraordinary situations, these stories feature hero*ines who face danger and solve crimes with panache.

2nd Culprit

A crime lover’s collection of short stories includes works by such notable authors as Robert Barnard, Antonia Fraser, Reginald Hill, Peter Lovesey, Sue Grafton, Ellis Peters, and Tony Hillerman. K. PW.

Crime Movies II

‘Cops on the Box’ have been among the most popular series on television for many years. From the days of Edgar Lustgarten’s Scotland Yard by way of Softly, Softly; Maigret; The Professionals and more recently, New Columbo, these stories of crime busters battling to bring criminals to justice have proved to be enormously popular with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. This collection brings together for the first time a number of the short stories on which these series were based, most by writers whose names are now automatically linked with the genre, including such legendary authors from the past as George Harmon Coxe and Elwyn Jones to current leading contributors like Dick Francis and Ruth Rendell. This is a book for all fans of detective fiction as well as enthusiasts of TV crime series.

A Red Rose Or A Satin Heart

From First love to Farewells, this book contains the full gamut of emotions inspired by poetry’s most popular subject: love. Meet the romantics and the unromantics, the obsessed and the fainthearted, the tragic and the comic, in all their lyrical glory. Antonia Fraser has made a touching, canny and diverse selection of poems from the fifteenth century to the present day, from ballads to sonnets to modern verse. Included alongside well known masters like Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, are contemporary poets such as Kathleen Jamie, John Burnside and Carol Ann Duffy, illuminating the ways of the heart in all its forms.

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