Author(s): Antonia Fraser

History

Strickland was possibly the most celebrated English female historical biographer of the 19th Century. Antonia Fraser selects her best writing and explains its importance. "The Lives of the Queens of England" were among the most popular of all Victorian historical publications. They remain an important pioneering achievement in the writing of historical biography. Agnes Strickland worked in manuscript collections and managed to obtain access to the state paper office. 'Facts not opinions' was her credo and the "Lives" were an important resource for later scholars, decades after their original publication. Antonia Fraser, the doyenne of modern historical biographers, makes a selection of her favourite passages from Strickland's work and writes an extensive introduction in which she states that the Lives 'remain in many ways as fresh and as entertaining as their first delighted readers must have found them'. Her selection concerns Anne Boleyn and her daughter Elizabeth I. "Continuum Histories" will attract a new generation of readers to some of the greatest narrative history ever written.
Each volume includes a dramatic episode from a major work of history, prefaced with an introduction by a leading modern authority.