Antonia Fraser, Author at Catholic Herald

Antonia Fraser

‘On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me’…Antonia Fraser and Uncle John’s Trousers

December 29, 2023

“Christmas comes but once a year,” my mother was apt to sing out on St Stephen’s Day, “but when it comes, it brings good cheer!” We children (eight of us by the end) exchanged meaningful glances. Then Thomas, ever enquiring, spoke up: “Will Father Christmas come back next year?” Judith was more probing: “Where does

Antonia Fraser: how the Book of Ruth shaped me

July 26, 2023

Antonia Fraser on how the strong female characters and implicit romance in the Book of Ruth had a profound effect on her own development My introduction to the Bible was strictly commercial. Our family – we were then four and became eight – were told that we had to learn a verse of the Bible

Diary: Memories of Christmas down the years and across the seas

November 30, 2021

It was when I first saw Uncle John Harman’s black trousers protruding under Father Christmas’s scarlet robe that my world changed. Up till then I had taken it for granted that grown-ups did not tell lies. Those stories of Father Christmas coming down the chimney, of Father Christmas reading my carefully written yet impassioned pleas

Diary: I read this one already

March 01, 2021

Lockdown and the war are so often compared, but are they really alike, asks Antonia Fraser

Book extract: ‘The sky was like blood’

May 17, 2018

The story begins with violence: in the summer of 1780 London was the scene of the worst riots the city had ever experienced, and which were to prove the “largest, deadliest and most protracted urban riots in British history”. The death toll was probably about 1,000 people altogether (in proportion to the population of the

London’s anti-Catholic riots were the bloodiest in British history

May 17, 2018

This book extract explores the Gordon Riots of 1780, whipped up by anti-'Papist' hysteria

Sorry, no search matching search results found. Please try again.