Author: Kristine Hughes

ARRIVED IN LONDON!!!

Kristine and Victoria here — at the Sloane Square Hotel together.

Victoria passed right by Apsley House on the way from Paddington Station and the Heathrow Express.

Kristine was curled up in the Bow Window of the hotel room pretending she was Beau Brummell at White’s.

White’s Club, St James’s Street

Now we are off to have tea and/or dinner.  We’ll keep you posted on what we find of interest (everything)!

OFF TO ENGLAND

Kristine here, landing at Heathrow today at 6 a.m., twelve hours before meeting up with Victoria once she jets in from Paris and we begin our three week sojourn in England. We are so looking forward to welcoming the Duke of Wellington tour group to London next week, but for now, we’ll be getting up to all sorts of historic things on our own: Buckingham Palace, the Queen’s Gallery, Highgate Cemetery, Kenwood House, Clarence House, mudlarking on the Thames, Sir John Soane’s Museum for the Peace Breaks Out exhibit – and that’s before the tour even begins!

I thought I’d let you know about changes to the blog whilst we’re in Merry Olde, so here goes:

We’ve taken the news stories out of the sidebars for the duration because, let’s be honest, Victoria and I aren’t about to commit to updating them whilst we’re cavorting through England.

We’ve only pre-scheduled a few posts for the time we’re away and will instead be popping in to post spontaneous updates regarding our travels on a regular basis, so check back here often to see what we get up to, and don’t forget to also follow our doings on Facebook and Twitter – you’ll find the links to both in the right hand sidebar.

By the time most of you read this, I shall be walking the streets of London, taking photos and making lots of notes for future blog posts. We’ll see you soon!

Note to Victoria: I reckon you’ll be at our hotel around 7 p.m. Will be in the room waiting for you with ice bucket and drinks at the ready. After cocktails, we’ll stroll down to the Duke of Wellington for dinner – two blocks away.  All things Wellington, all the time. Huzza – let the Artie-fest begin!

THE WELLINGTON CONNECTION: AUTHOR LADY ANTONIA FRASER




By Guest Blogger Spencer Blohm

Lady Antonia Fraser is one of the most highly respected and influential biographers in the world. A born and raised Londoner, she’s shined a light on history’s most prolific, controversial, and infamous characters. For her 82nd birthday on August 27th, let’s take a look at the times of a woman who’s lived a life not too dissimilar from her own book subjects.
            Born in London in 1932 to the 7th Earl of Longford and the Countess of Longford, part of the well-known “Literary Longfords,” who come from a long line of authors, biographers, and poets. Growing up in a literary inclined household meant an emphasis on education, particularly for Lady Antonia, whom her mother described as “the most precocious” of the eight Pakenham children. Her education included stints at the Dragon School in Oxford, St Mary’s School, Ascot, and Oxford.
            Following her graduation, she began work as an assistant at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, a publishing house. However, she soon met and married Sir Hugh Fraser, a Member of Parliament for Stafford and Stone, and quit working in order to become a homemaker and mother. For nearly 15 years, her focus was on her children and husband, but the creative instincts so deeply ingrained in her DNA were always boiling under the surface. After it was suggested to her mother (also a published author) that she should write a biography about Mary Queen of Scots, Lady Antonia persuaded her mother to let her write the book and, while carrying her fifth child, she began her research. When asked about how she could have possibly managed to raise six children while also doing the extensive research and hard work required to write historical biographies Lady Antonia explained to The Telegraph:  “I allowed no one to disturb me between 9.30am and 12.30pm with anything much short of a broken leg. My daughter Natasha put up a sign on my door saying, ‘Nobody allowed not even you otherwise no pocket money, no conversation and worst of all no mother’”
            In 1969 Mary, Queen of Scots was published, marking the beginning of the then-37-year-old Lady Antonia’s long and wildly successful career. From there, she quickly churned out book after book detailing the rich history of her native England and its eccentric monarchy. As her writing career took off, her marriage disintegrated and she notoriously found solace in the playwright Harold Pinter who, at the time, was married to the successful stage and film actress Vivien Merchant. With both of them leaving their respective spouses in order to get married, Lady Antonia had her first real experience with the press. However it wasn’t the literary pages who were now writing about her, and the subject was far from her work.
            After the couple wed in 1980, she continued to write and published historical biographies of noted monarchs like Charles II, the fabled Boadicea, Henry VIII and his many wives, as well as a critical examination of the life of a woman in the 17th century England called The Weaker Vessel. It was in 2001, however, that her most well-known book, Marie Antoinette: The Journey was published. The bo
ok offers a refreshingly unbiased and deeply analytical look at the life of the notorious French queen. Before the book was even published, director Sofia Coppola reached out to Lady Antonia about discussing the possibility of Coppola buying the rights to the book to make a film. Of this proposition Lady Antonia noted in her diary, “But of course the film won’t actually happen. Because it never does.” Obviously she was wrong, and she served as a source as Coppola both wrote and directed the movie. Lady Antonia was a vital resource to the creation of the film and met with many of the cast and crew before and during filming to consult with them on the direction they were going and the historical accuracy of it all. Of the final product, she wrote “In principle I loved Sofia’s use of anachronisms—the witty flash of sneakers amid a delicious montage of pink and turquoise shoes was especially pleasing. None of the liberties taken bothered me.”
            To coincide with the film’s release, her book was republished in 2006 and gained an even larger following than it had after its initial release. She continued to focus on the French court, as a change of pace, and published Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King which, perhaps not coincidentally, was also released in 2006. It was at this time she decided to focus on a subject much closer to home; herself and her husband. Following the death of her husband in 2008, she decided to write about her life with her late husband and the decidedly elegant and grand 33 years they spent together. The book, Must you Go?: My Life with Harold Pinter was published in 2010 to critical praise.
            While she has yet to release a book since 2010, Lady Antonia continues to be an important figure in English culture. She was elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2011 and has continued to work on passion projects like the protection of English cultural objects and even serves as an advisor to the Man Booker International Prize committee. She also revealed in April that she’s currently working on a memoir of her early life, slated to be published in 2015. It looks like despite having every right to retire and put up her feet, Lady Antonia Fraser still cannot resist the drive to write, something for which we are surely all grateful.


Spencer Blohm is a freelance entertainment blogger for http://www.direct-ticket.net/. He came to know about Lady Antonia through his love of medieval and renaissance monarchy and is still a steadfast (although slightly closeted) history buff. He lives and works in Chicago where he can usually be found with his nose in a book or eyes glued to the T.V.