Overview

Lady Antonia Fraser—novelist, historian, daughter of progressive aristocrats, and Dame of the British Empire—first fell in love with history in 1936 at the age of five, when she received a copy of H. E. Marshall’s Our Island Story for Christmas. The book sparked a passion that, thirty years later, inspired her to write the acclaimed biography Mary, Queen of Scots. In these pages, Fraser turns her biographical skills inward to capture her own remarkable life story. From her idyllic early childhood to a wartime evacuation to North Oxford; from her education at a Catholic convent to holidays spent at Dunsany Castle and Pakenham Hall; from her days working in publishing to a turf battle with her mother over who would write about the Queen of Scots, My History is a singular, heartfelt memoir—and a love letter to a British way of life that has all but disappeared.

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9781101910214

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Reviews

Amiable and engaging. . . . As vivid and character-rich as her popular histories. <b> </b><i>The</i> <i>Washington Post</i> The history of a writer s love affair with her vocation. . . . Elicit[s] warm fellow feeling even in readers themselves who are nothing like a dame. <b> </b><i>The New York Times Book Review</i> Reading <i>My History</i>, I felt I was sitting at Ms. Fraser s dinner table in London, listening to the reminiscences and anecdotes of a grande dame. <b> </b>Moira Hodgson, <i>The Wall Street Journal</i> A fascinating account. . . . A book that ends, as it began, in wonderland. <i>The Guardian</i> (London) Hugely enjoyable. <i>The Times</i> (London) Antonia Fraser, through both advantages of birth and strength of character, is one of those rare human beings who has managed to live a long, eventful life that has been both charmed and charming. . . . <i>My History</i> will certainly bring readers closer to Antonia Fraser. And the closer they get, the more most of them will like this willful, winning and very talented lady. <i>The Washington Times Engaging and elegiac. <i>Financial Times A witty, perambulating memoir of youth and early adulthood. . . . Nuanced and emotionally oblique in a most English fashion, [<i>My History</i>] offers a textured glimpse into a bygone era. <i>Publishers Weekly Engaging. . . . This autobiographical journey is distinguished by Fraser s contagious enthusiasm for all things historical, including her own remarkable past. <i>Booklist</i> Will amuse and delight memoir lovers interested in upper-class British life of the mid-twentieth century. <i>Library Journal</i>

Amiable and engaging. . . . As vivid and character-rich as her popular histories. The Washington Post The history of a writer s love affair with her vocation. . . . Elicit[s] warm fellow feeling even in readers themselves who are nothing like a dame. The New York Times Book Review Reading My History, I felt I was sitting at Ms. Fraser s dinner table in London, listening to the reminiscences and anecdotes of a grande dame. Moira Hodgson, The Wall Street Journal A fascinating account. . . . A book that ends, as it began, in wonderland. The Guardian (London) Hugely enjoyable. The Times (London) Antonia Fraser, through both advantages of birth and strength of character, is one of those rare human beings who has managed to live a long, eventful life that has been both charmed and charming. . . . My History will certainly bring readers closer to Antonia Fraser. And the closer they get, the more most of them will like this willful, winning and very talented lady. The Washington Times Engaging and elegiac. Financial Times A witty, perambulating memoir of youth and early adulthood. . . . Nuanced and emotionally oblique in a most English fashion, [My History] offers a textured glimpse into a bygone era. Publishers Weekly Engaging. . . . This autobiographical journey is distinguished by Fraser s contagious enthusiasm for all things historical, including her own remarkable past. Booklist Will amuse and delight memoir lovers interested in upper-class British life of the mid-twentieth century. Library Journal

Author Information

Antonia Fraser is the author of many internationally bestselling historical works, including Love and Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, which was made into a film by Sofia Coppola, The Wives of Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot, and Perilous Question: Reform or Revolution? Britain on the Brink, 1832. She is also the author of Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter. She has received the Wolfson Prize for History, the 2000 Norton Medlicott Medal of Britain’s Historical Association, and the Franco-British Society’s Enid McLeod Literary Prize. She was made a Dame of the British Empire for services to Literature in 2011.

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