Antonia Fraser

About Antonia Fraser

Lady Antonia Fraser, CBE (born 27 August 1932), née Pakenham, is an English author of history and novels, best known as Antonia Fraser for writing biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of Harold Pinter, the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, and is also known as Antonia Pinter.

Born on 27 August 1932, and named Antonia Margaret Caroline Pakenham, Antonia Fraser is the daughter of Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford (1905–2001), and his wife, Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford, née Elizabeth Harman (1906–2002); thus, her formal title (form of address) is "Lady Antonia". When she was a teenager, like all her siblings, she became a convert to the Catholic Church, after the conversion of her parents. Her "maternal grandparents were Unitarians – a non-conformist faith with a strong emphasis on social reform ..."; in response to criticism of her writing about Oliver Cromwell, she has said: "I have no Catholic blood"; before his own conversion in his thirties, following a nervous breakdown in the Army, she has explained, "My father was Protestant Church of Ireland and my mother was Unitarian up to the age of 20, when she abandoned it." She was educated at St Mary's School Ascot, Ascot and Dragon School, Oxford, and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, also her mother's alma mater.

From 1956 until their divorce in 1977, she was married to Sir Hugh Fraser (1918-1984), a descendant of Scottish aristocracy 15 years her senior and a Conservative Unionist MP in the House of Commons (sitting for Stafford), who was a friend of the American Kennedy family. They had six children: three sons, Benjamin, Damian, and Orlando; and three daughters, Rebecca, Flora, and Natasha (Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni), who are all also writers and biographers. Benjamin works for JPMorgan, Damian is the managing director of the investment banking firm UBS AG (formerly S. G. Warburg) in Mexico, and Orlando is a barrister specializing in commercial law (Wroe). Lady Antonia has 17 grandchildren.