Flora Fraser | |
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Born | Flora Elizabeth Fraser 30 October 1958 London, England |
Other names | Flora Fraser Soros |
Education | Holland Park School |
Alma mater | Wadham College, Oxford |
Occupation | Writer |
Spouses | Robert Powell-Jones (m. 1980;died 1998)Peter Soros (m. 1997;sep. 2009) |
Children | 3 |
Parent(s) | Sir Hugh Fraser Lady Antonia Pakenham |
Flora Elizabeth Fraser Soros (born 30 October 1958) is an English writer of historical biographies.
She is a daughter of historian and historical biographer Lady Antonia Fraser and Sir Hugh Fraser, a British Conservative politician. Her mother is of English descent while her father was Scottish. Her stepfather was the playwright Harold Pinter, the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, her mother's second husband until his death in 2008. Her maternal grandparents were Elizabeth Longford, also an eminent biographer, and Lord Longford, a well-known politician, social reformer, and author.
She was named for the Scottish Jacobite Flora MacDonald. Using her maiden name Flora Fraser, she has written biographies of Emma Hamilton, Caroline of Brunswick, the daughters of George III, and Pauline Bonaparte. [1]
Fraser attended Holland Park School [2] for one year before joining her elder sister Rebecca at St Paul's Girls' School. She then read Classics at Wadham College, Oxford. [3]
Fraser married Robert Powell-Jones at the age of 21, with whom she had a daughter. Powell-Jones died of a heart attack in 1998, aged 44. [4] She later married Peter Soros, a nephew of American currency speculator and philanthropist George Soros, with whom she has two children. Fraser and Soros separated in 2009. Fraser lives in London.[ citation needed ]
Source: [5]
Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days—which was longer than those of any of her predecessors—constituted the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India.
Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and prior to his death was also known as Lady Antonia Pinter.
Elizabeth Pakenham, Countess of Longford,, better known as Elizabeth Longford, was a British historian. She was a member of the Royal Society of Literature and was on the board of trustees of the National Portrait Gallery in London. She is best known as a historian, especially for her biographies of 19th-century figures including Queen Victoria (1964), Lord Byron (1976) and the Duke of Wellington (1969).
Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll was the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
James Robert Bruce Ogilvy is a British landscape designer, and the founder and editor of Luxury Briefing. He is a member of the extended British royal family as the elder child and only son of Princess Alexandra of Kent and Sir Angus Ogilvy. Queen Elizabeth II was a first cousin of his mother, both being granddaughters of King George V. As a result, he is a second cousin of King Charles III and 58th in the line to the British throne.
Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh was the eleventh child and fourth daughter of King George III and his consort Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Paula Maria Bonaparte Leclerc Borghese, better known as Pauline Bonaparte, was an imperial French princess, the first sovereign Duchess of Guastalla, and the princess consort of Sulmona and Rossano. She was the sixth child of Letizia Ramolino and Carlo Buonaparte, Corsica's representative to the court of King Louis XVI of France. Her elder brother, Napoleon, was the first emperor of the French. She married Charles Leclerc, a French general, a union ended by his death in 1802.
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton, Lady Stirling-Maxwell was an active English social reformer and author. She left her husband, who was accused by many of coercive behaviour, in 1836. Her husband then sued her close friend Lord Melbourne, then the Whig Prime Minister, for criminal conversation (adultery).
Carolina Maria Annunziata Bonaparte, better known as Caroline Bonaparte, was an Imperial French princess; the seventh child and third daughter of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino, and a younger sister of Napoleon I of France. She was queen of Naples during the reign of her spouse there, and regent of Naples during his absence four times: in 1812–1813, 1813, 1814, and 1815.
Augusta of Great Britain was a British princess, granddaughter of George II and the only elder sibling of George III. She was Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by marriage to Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick. Her daughter Caroline was the spouse of George IV.
Sir John Ponsonby Conroy, 1st Baronet, KCH was a British Army officer who served as comptroller to the Duchess of Kent and her young daughter, Princess Victoria, the future Queen of the United Kingdom.
Lady Violet Georgiana Powell was a British writer and critic. Her husband was the author Anthony Powell.
The Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography was established in 2003 in memory of Elizabeth Longford (1906-2002), the British author, biographer and historian. The £5,000 prize is awarded annually for a historical biography published in the preceding year.
Elizabeth Keith, Countess of Huntly, was a Scottish noblewoman and the wife of George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, Scotland's leading Catholic magnate during the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1562, Elizabeth encouraged her husband to raise forces against Queen Mary which led to his being outlawed, and after his death, his titles forfeited to the Crown. Elizabeth's son Sir John Gordon was executed for having taken part in his father's rebellion.
Anne Hamilton, Countess of Huntly, was a Scottish noblewoman and a member of the powerful Hamilton family which had a strong claim to the Scottish crown. Her father James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault, 2nd Earl of Arran was heir presumptive to the throne of Scotland after Mary, Queen of Scots prior to the birth of the latter's son Prince James in 1566. Anne was the wife of George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly, Lord Chancellor of Scotland and a chief conspirator during the reign of Queen Mary.
Lady Charlotte Finch was a British royal governess. She was governess to the children of King George III and Queen Charlotte for over thirty years, holding the position from 1762 to 1793. Her parents were courtiers Thomas Fermor, 1st Earl of Pomfret, and Henrietta Louisa Jeffreys. The couple were educated and frequently travelled with their growing brood of children to the continent. Charlotte, like her sisters, was well educated; in 1746, she married the Hon. William Finch and had issue including George Finch, 9th Earl of Winchilsea.
The wedding of Prince Albert, Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon took place on 26 April 1923 at Westminster Abbey. The bride was a member of the Bowes-Lyon family, while the groom was the second son of King George V.
Dash (1830–1840) was a King Charles Spaniel owned by Queen Victoria. Victoria's biographer Elizabeth Longford, called him "the Queen's closest childhood companion", and in the words of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, he "was the first in a long line of beloved little dogs".
Hester Lisle née Cholmondeley (1755–1828) was an English noblewoman and courtier. She is noted for her role as lady in waiting to Caroline of Brunswick, and the evidence she gave in 1806 on the affairs with men involving the Princess, married to George, Prince of Wales.