Antonia Fraser
People in my books tend to get their just deserts, even if not at the hands of the police.
Antonia FraserNinety-seven is my lucky number.
Antonia FraserI hate the only one of my book jackets when I was made up professionally, my hair made into a smooth bell.
Antonia FraserNormally I make myself swim, do exercises. For zest I like going to the cinema.
Antonia FraserI think there's a tremendous split between people who've been through a war and people who haven't.
Antonia FraserI enjoyed writing mysteries out of my imagination as a relief from all that research, and also because I could write them while traveling.
Antonia FraserMy mother was a politician in my formative years.
Antonia FraserMy advantage as a woman and a human being has been in having a mother who believed strongly in women's education. She was an early undergraduate at Oxford, and her own mother was a doctor.
Antonia FraserAs the seventh wife of Henry VIII I hope I would have managed to do the old monster in-my cooking comes to mind, as I am a hopeless cook.
Antonia FraserMary Queen of Scots was my first love, and that is always something special.
Antonia FraserI can't read historical fiction because I find the real thing so much more interesting.
Antonia FraserAs long as you persecute people, you will actually throw up terrorism.
Antonia FraserThe clue to book jacket photography is to look friendly and approachable, but not too glamorous.
Antonia FraserI am re-reading Henry James as a change from history. I began with Daisy Miller, and I've just finished Washington Square. What a brilliant, painful book.
Antonia FraserLives in previous centuries for women are largely a matter of class. It would have been fun to have been a rich, privileged woman in the 18th century, but no fun at all to be her maid.
Antonia FraserThat is my major concern: writers who are in prison for writing.
Antonia FraserThe concentration in my book on Marie Antoinette's childhood and on her family influences. It is surprising how some books actually start with her arrival in France!
Antonia FraserI have tried to look at Marie Antoinette, her successes and failures, in terms of what she faced, with detachment.
Antonia Fraser
