My History
Written by Antonia Fraser
Narrated by Penelope Wilton
3.5/5
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
About this audiobook
Antonia Fraser
Antonia Fraser is the author of many widely acclaimed historical works which have been international bestsellers. She was awarded the Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2000 and was made a DBE in 2011 for services to literature. Her previous books include Mary Queen of Scots; King Charles II; The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot in Seventeenth-Century England, which won the Wolfson History Prize; Marie Antoinette: The Journey; Perilous Question; The King and the Catholics; and The Wives of Henry VIII. Must You Go?, a memoir of her life with Harold Pinter, was published in 2010, and My History: A Memoir of Growing Up in 2015. Fraser's The Case of the Married Woman is available from Pegasus Books. She lives in London.
More audiobooks from Antonia Fraser
Perilous Question: The Drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mary Queen of Scots Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Must You Go?: My Life with Harold Pinter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Six Wives of Henry VIII Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton and Her Fight for Justice for Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to My History
Biography & Memoir For You
The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fairy Tale Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Divine Rivals: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hang the Moon: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Blood and Ash Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5And Then There Were None Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twisted Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Local Woman Missing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dead Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ivy League Counterfeiter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If He Had Been with Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Later Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When No One Is Watching: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing to See Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Series of Unfortunate Events #1 Multi-Voice, A: The Bad Beginning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Five Years: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for My History
19 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Antonia Fraser is well known as a writer of detailed yet accessible historical studies, and in particular for her biographies of Mary, Queen of Scots and Oliver Cromwell. Here she turns to recounting her own story, chronicling her early years, painting a charming picture of her childhood, life as a student in Oxford and the early years of her writing career.It is a life resonant with enigma. Her father was the unorthodox and frequently outspoken aristocrat and sometime Labour Minister, Lord Longford., and her mother also had celebrated family connections, being the great niece of the nineteenth century Radical, turned imperialist, Joseph Chamberlain, and cousin of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Despite her aristocratic background her family was resolutely socialist, with both her parents fighting several elections as Labour candidate. Antonia inherited her parents' deep interest in politics, and eventually married an MP, Sir Hugh Fraser, though surprisingly, given her socialist pedigree, he was a Conservative. In 1961, her father inherited the title of Earl of Longford following the death of his elder brother. At that point Antonia, as the daughter of an earl, became known as 'Lady Antonia Fraser'.She gives an enchanting picture of life in Oxford between the World Wars, and her performance at school, but most enthralling for me was her depiction of the brief period during which she lived with her aunt, Lady Violet Powell and her husband, author Anthony Powell. He is perhaps my favourite author and I have read his massive roman fleuve 'A Dance to the Music of Time' more times than I can count. It is fascinating to see Lady Antonia's identification of the originals of some of the characters in the novel sequence. After all, her father has often been seen as the prototype for Erridge, the troubled aristocratic socialist campaigner.Lady Antonia writes with great clarity, and a fair amount of self-deprecation, and brings the same charm and ability to grip the reader's attention that is characteristic of her historical works.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Slightly tedious emphasis on her conversion to Roman Catholicism. Writing felt a bit pedestrian. Disappointing as she writes very good history books.