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Lady '''Antonia Fraser''' (born [[August 27]], [[1932]]) is a [[British]] author of history and novels, best known for writing biographies.  She is the daughter of [[Francis Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford]] (hence her title), and [[Elizabeth Longford]], both eminent writers.

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In [[1956]] Lady Antonia married [[Hugh Fraser]], [[Member of Parliament|MP]] with whom she had six children.  A [[Roman Catholic]], she caused a public scandal in [[1977]] by leaving her husband to live with the playwright, [[Harold Pinter]], whom she eventually married, in [[1980]].  Pinter's then-wife, the actress [[Vivien Merchant]], spoke publicly of her distress at his abandonment of her and made cutting remarks about Fraser in the press, including the famous comment that "she has very big feet".

Fraser was educated at [[Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford]].  Her first major work was ''[[Mary, Queen of Scots (1969 book)|Mary, Queen of Scots]]'' ([[1969]]).  She followed it up with various other biographies, including, ''[[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]], our Chief of Men'' ([[1973]]), and she won the [[Wolfson History Award]] in [[1984]] for ''The Weaker Vessel'', a study of women's lives in [[17th century]] [[England]].  She also writes detective novels.

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====References====
* Adapted from the [[Wikipedia]] article, "Antonia_Fraser" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonia_Fraser http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonia_Fraser], used under the [[GNU Free Documentation License]]