Antonia Fraser

• Born: August 27, 1932
• Place of Birth: London, England

TYPES OF PLOT: Amateur sleuth; cozy

PRINCIPAL SERIES: Jemima Shore, 1977-

Contribution

Lady Antonia Fraser has followed the tradition of such British mystery writers as Dorothy L. Sayers, Emma Lathen, Ruth Rendell, P. D. James, and Patricia Highsmith. Using her knowledge of the British aristocracy, history, Parliament, royalty, entertainment and literary circles, television, and contemporary affairs, she has introduced various issues and a rich blend of characters. As a heroine, Jemima Shore is a mixture of the traditional and modern woman caught up in often extraordinary circumstances. Some of these adventures are handled with black humor; all are dramatic and suspenseful. Developing a mystery series after writing several successful historical biographies has helped Fraser provide a richness of characters and settings. The drama of real life has been successfully transferred to the mystery setting, and readers will perceive the changes in contemporary Great Britain much more easily after reading this series, which has captured the sense and complexity of that modern society.

Biography

Antonia Fraser’s father was Francis Aungier Pakenham, who became the seventh earl of Longford in 1961. Her mother was Elizabeth Harman, and she was related to the Chamberlains. Both parents went to Oxford University, belonged to the Labour Party in the 1930s, and converted to Catholicism in the 1940s. Lady Longford became an early mentor and model. Fraser, the first of eight children, grew up in Oxford amid politics and war. Her formal education began at the Dragon School in 1940-1944, and she already showed a fascination with Mary, Queen of Scots. From 1946 to 1948, she attended school at St. Mary’s Convent in Berkshire, where she converted to Catholicism. From 1950 to 1953, she attended Oxford University, receiving her bachelor’s and master’s degrees there. After graduation, she worked for Lord Weidenfeld’s publishing house, which published her first book in 1954. In 1956, she married Sir Hugh Charles Patrick Joseph Fraser. Fifteen years her elder, he was a handsome, charming Scottish nobleman. They were active in politics and reared a family in London and Scotland. By the mid-1960s, she was a celebrity, appearing on society pages and television shows.

With a contract from Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Fraser began research for Mary, Queen of Scots. Published in 1969, it was one of five books written by the literary Pakenhams that year. It received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography, thus assuring her a position in literary circles. A best-seller in eleven languages, Fraser’s first attempt at biography gave her a devoted international readership. She continued to write biographies, including The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1992), Boadicea’s Chariot: The Warrior Queens (1988), and Marie Antoinette: The Journey (2001), which was adapted into Marie Antoinette (2006), a popular film by director Sofia Coppola.

In 1975, however, Fraser dramatically changed her lifestyle, moving in with the playwright Harold Pinter. After the Frasers and Pinters divorced, Pinter and Fraser were married in a civil ceremony. During this same period, the Jemima Shore mystery series was begun, and Fraser became active in various literary organizations. Her work on the seventeenth century earned the Wolfson History Prize and the Prix Caumont-La Force. In addition, Hull University awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1986. For her Jemima Shore books, the Crime Writers’ Association bestowed on her the Gold Dagger Award in 1996.

In the twenty-first century, Frasier published several non-fiction works, including Must You Go? My Life with Harold Pinter (2010), My History. A Memoir of Growing Up (2015), and Caroline Lamb: A Free Spirit (2023).

Analysis

Antonia Fraser grew up in an England bound by class distinctions from which she benefited. Her mother, Lady Longford, has stated that Fraser was the most precocious of all her children, showing an early interest in history, biography, and genealogy. Lady Longford provided the early support and model for all her children, most of whom are writers. Fraser’s brother, Thomas, wrote that in a large family of talkers and few listeners, it is not surprising that writing should provide an outlet. Family members made their first impression on England in politics, but their greatest accomplishment was in the literary field.

Fraser and her mother have often served as each other’s critics, and Fraser dedicated The Weaker Vessel (1984) to her mother, calling her a most excellent heroine. Critics respect both women for their impressive research and readable style, although Fraser’s primary strength lies in her narrative skill. This has sometimes been criticized as a storybook approach to history, but it also assures the popularity of her biographies. She seems to be at her best when writing on subjects to which she has some personal commitment, as may be seen in Mary, Queen of Scots (1969) and The Weaker Vessel (1984), as well as in her earlier children’s writings and anthologies.

Jemima Shore

In 1975, when Fraser left her marriage for a new relationship with Pinter, she also began working in a new literary genre, the mystery. Despite the changes, Fraser’s narrative style and research methods have not been abandoned. The free-spirited Jemima Shore, a fantasy figure, first appeared in Quiet as a Nun (1977). In her first appearance, Shore was in her early thirties, stylish and intelligent, and had carved out a niche as an investigative reporter for the British Megalith Television after wartime schooling in a convent and at Oxford. It is tempting to see much of Fraser’s life reflected in her heroine. The locales are familiar; for example, Fraser’s own convent education at St. Mary’s in Berkshire is drawn on in this first full-length mystery novel, and her experience with British television serves her well in her portrayal of Shore’s career.

For English audiences, the heroine’s name itself has some interest. Jemima rings of Puritan virtue, while Shore reminds one of a king’s mistress. Here is a verbal mixture of the traditional and modern virtues and vices. To American readers, the names produce images of the South and popular entertainers. Despite the varying reactions to the name, the television adaptation in 1978 popularized Jemima Shore on both sides of the Atlantic.

Fraser followed the example of such eminent writers as Sayers and James. It is also tempting to think of a young Miss Jane Marple in some situations in which Jemima Shore finds herself. Sayers believed that detectives should follow clues, not love, but an unmarried Jemima Shore finds time to fit love in with her investigations. The love subplot often seems to reflect the post-World War II generation’s disillusionment, making Jemima Shore a contemporary figure.

The unmarried Jemima Shore has a greater freedom of action, reflecting some of the same freedoms discovered after World War I, but she does not have to be elderly or a widow to gain her liberty. Although Fraser follows in the British tradition of mystery writers, her use of the contemporary scene has allowed a greater range for her heroine. Jemima Shore can still get into extremely dangerous situations, even life-threatening ones, only to be rescued by traditional gallantry. She often depends on her intuition and is usually right in trusting her instincts. She can disguise her nosiness with her television role, while other female detectives have had to rely on their age as an excuse. A confrontation with a person not suspected of the crime can endanger Jemima. Still, either a third person intervenes, or the criminal acts in a more subtle way than the rough-and-tumble American male detectives. More is left to the reader’s imagination, although the conventions of the detective novel are followed and understood by Fraser.

Fraser’s use of black humor is reminiscent of , while the sense of justice that pervades her works recalls the themes in ’s novels, such as Prestupleniye i nakazaniye (1866; Crime and Punishment, 1886) and ’s Voskreseniye (1899; Resurrection, 1899). Jemima Shore seems to have more in common with Sherlock Holmes or Lord Peter Wimsey than Lew Archer or Bulldog Drummond. There is a trace of the romantic in the very modern Jemima Shore, which would be recognizable to devotees of , , and . Jemima Shore’s cat, Midnight, recalls the role animals play in the mystery novel and the writings of individuals such as or . The English love of animals is legendary, and nothing sets off an English work better than a sympathetic handling of animals, which often show greater sense than their humans.

In addition to the rich association of characters in different locales, several books raise contemporary issues, including public housing, religious freedom, press coverage, animal rights, feminist and educational issues, and the changing role of the aristocracy and royalty, to name a few. Fraser has enriched her mystery novels by keeping in touch with the ongoing political scene. Her knowledge of the entertainment field has enabled her to delineate the stresses of both legitimate theater and pop performers, especially in Cool Repentance (1982).

Oxford Blood

Oxford Blood (1985) can most nearly be compared with Sayers’s Gaudy Night (1935). Oxford University, at the time of the commencement balls at various colleges in June, is Oxford Blood’s setting. Shore’s television program highlights the young aristocrats and cashs in on the popularity of the television series Brideshead Revisited. Instead, it displays a privileged group of young people living dissolute lives full of drugs and alcohol while England faces high unemployment and the world deals with widespread famine. The tension grows while an aristocratic inheritance is jeopardized by jealousy and vengeance.

Your Royal Hostage

Jemima Shore’s First Case, and Other Stories, a collection of short stories published in 1986, introduces the young Jemima Shore, who at the age of fifteen and in a convent school, is solving her first mystery. Fraser displayed drama and suspense, as well as some black humor, in these stories. Such humor also appears in Your Royal Hostage (1988), with its animal rights group, international interest in a royal wedding, high drama, suspense, and backdrop of London and its contemporary life.

Because of Fraser’s interest in the character, the reader cares about Jemima Shore’s future. Her interest in contemporary issues reflects the modern scene. It also reflects a change from the disillusionment and dissipation of the post-World War II generation. This change includes a concern with material well-being but also nurtures those values that feed the spirit and the soul.

Political Death

British politics, in which Fraser was steeped from a young age, is fertile ground for stories of intrigue. Political Death (1996) illustrates her admission that powerful figures in government are more fascinating to her than actual policy. An aging actress who has developed alcoholism and dementia threatens to point a finger at a popular politician. Scandal, a skeleton, and an apparent suicide ensue—a scenario fit for any era. Fraser, however, endows her heroine with a thoroughly modern set of investigative tools—a television camera and a high-profile position as a BBC journalist.

Fraser’s ability to combine the traditional with the contemporary expands her appeal. Jemima Shore, like Peter Wimsey, can be enjoyed by both male and female readers. The richness of the characterizations in each work displays the biographical skills of the writer. Fraser’s knowledge of various writing styles and modern issues provides depth to the standard mystery format. The descriptive details of specific locales delight the traveler, recalling individual memories and experiences. The veneer of civilization is shown to be quite thin at times, allowing the barbaric to take place, yet there is a return to those enduring ideals and standards that allow humans to persevere and triumph over adversity.

Principal Series Character:

• Jemima Shore, a celebrated investigative British television reporter, is unmarried, in her early thirties, stylish, and intelligent. Her television programs provide her with high visibility, various settings, and plenty of opportunities to pursue her amateur detecting.

Bibliography

Cooke, Rachel. "Must You Go?: My Life With Harold Pinter by Antonia Fraser." Guardian, 17 Jan. 2010, www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/jan/17/must-you-go-antonia-fraser. Accessed 20 July 2024.

Craig, Patricia, and Mary Cadogan. “A Curious Career for a Woman?” In The Lady Investigates: Women Detectives and Spies in Fiction. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981.

Klein, Kathleen Gregory, ed. Great Women Mystery Writers: Classic to Contemporary. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994.

Knight, Stephen. Crime Fiction, 1800-2000: Detection, Death, Diversity. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

"Lady Caroline Lamb: A Free Spirit by Antonia Fraser." Irish Times, 12 July 2023, www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review/2023/07/12/lady-caroline-lamb-a-free-spirit-by-antonia-fraser. Accessed 20 July 2024.

Mann, Jessica. Deadlier than the Male: Why Are So Many Respectable English Women So Good at Murder? New York: Macmillan, 1981.

Rowland, Susan. From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell: British Women Writers in Detective and Crime Fiction. Palgrave, 2001.