Since 1969, Lady Antonia Fraser has written many acclaimed historical works which have been international bestsellers. These include the biographies Mary Queen of Scots (James Tait Black Memorial Prize), Cromwell: Our Chief of Men, King Charles II, The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605 (St. Louis Literary Award; CWA Non-Fiction Gold Dagger) and Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of The Sun King.

She has also written four highly-praised books focussing on women's history: The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot in Seventeenth-Century England (Wolfson Award for History 1984), The Warrior Queens: Boadicea's Chariot (1988), The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1992) and Marie Antoinette: The Journey (Enid MacLeod Literary Prize, 2001 and the basis for Sofia Coppola's 2006 film).

Antonia Fraser is also the editor of the Kings and Queens of England series (Weidenfield & Nicholson), and wrote the volume King James VI of Scotland, I of England.

Antonia Fraser was married to Harold Pinter, the playwright, who died on Christmas Eve, 2008. Her latest book, Must You Go? My Life With Harold Pinter (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2010) is out now in hardback.

Antonia Fraser was made CBE in 1999 and was awarded the Norton Medicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2000. She lives in London.