Antonia Fraser

I think there has been a great deal of valuable revisionism in women's history. ”

If I write that it was a cold day, you can be sure I know it was a cold day because Pepys told us. ”

That is my major concern: writers who are in prison for writing. ”

King Charles II liked women's company and well as making love to them. ”

Mary Queen of Scots was my first love, and that is always something special. ”

I think mine is the fullest and most plausible account of what went on in Marie Antoinette's life. ”

It can be a long gap between the emergence of fully researched historical biographies. ”

Normally I make myself swim, do exercises. For zest I like going to the cinema. ”

Lives 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. ”

The 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! ”