{{Short description|British writer}} {{Use British English|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = [[The Honourable]] | name = Frances Osborne | image = | birth_name = Frances Victoria Howell | children = 2 | education = [[Windlesham House School]]<br />[[Marlborough College]] | alma_mater = [[University of Oxford]] | spouse = {{marriage|[[George Osborne]]|1998|2019|end=divorced}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48833570|work=[[BBC News]]|title=George Osborne and wife Frances announce divorce|date=1 July 2019}}</ref> | father = [[David Howell, Baron Howell of Guildford]] | mother = Cary Davina Wallace | website = {{URL|francesosborne.com}} }} '''Frances Victoria Osborne''' (''née'' '''Howell''')<ref>Charles Mosley, editor, ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes'' (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 2, pages 1989 and 3030.</ref> (born 1969) is an English author. She has written two biographies and one novel.
Osborne's first [[biography]], ''Lilla's Feast'', tells the story of her great-grandmother's life and was published by [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] in September 2004. Her second biography, ''The Bolter'', told the story of another of her great-grandmothers [[Idina Sackville]], and became an international best-seller. ''Park Lane'', her third book and first novel, published in June 2012, was named Bookseller's Choice by ''[[The Bookseller]]'' magazine.<ref name="Frances Website">{{cite web|url= http://www.francesosborne.com/| title=The Official Website of Frances Osborne| publisher = FrancesOsborne.com| accessdate=20 June 2012}}</ref>
She was the first wife of [[George Osborne]], the former [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]].
==Early life and education== [[Image:Marlborough College Chapel.jpg|thumb|right|180px|[[Marlborough College]]]]
Osborne was educated at [[Windlesham House School]], [[Marlborough College]] and the [[University of Oxford]] and then trained as a [[barrister]], during which period she became friends with the future wife of [[Ed Miliband]], [[Justine Thornton]], with whom she later embarked on a backpacking trip across South America.<ref name="The Times">{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/tto/magazine/article3421434.ece |title=Frances Osborne: the view from No 11|work= [[The Times]]| date=26 May 2012 |access-date=20 June 2012}}</ref><ref name=TheTelegraph2014-03-29/>
Osborne worked in law, finance and journalism before becoming a full-time writer.<ref name="The Times"/>
==Works==
===''Lilla's Feast''===
Osborne's first biography follows the life of the author's paternal great-grandmother, Lilla Eckford. Lilla Eckford wrote a cookery and housekeeping book when in a Japanese internment camp in [[World War II]]. Osborne was fourteen when Lilla died at the age of 100. After the death, Osborne discovered a box full of faded letters that had flown between Lilla, her first husband (Osborne's great-grandfather), his parents and his siblings. Osborne read through the letters, which revealed the story of why Lilla never gave up hope.<ref>{{cite book| last =Osborne| first = Frances| title = Lilla's Feast| publisher = Doubleday| year = 2004| location = London| isbn =978-0-385-60666-0 }}</ref>
''Lilla's Feast'', published by [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] in 2004, has been translated into six different languages, is a [[Kiriyama Prize]] Notable Book and a [[New York Times]] Editor's Choice.<ref name="Frances Website"/>
===''The Bolter''=== ''The Bolter: Idina Sackville – the woman who scandalised 1920s society and became White Mischief's infamous seductress'' is a biography of another of Osborne's great-grandmothers, this time a maternal one. [[Idina Sackville]] was called a "bolter" as she fled her marriage. There were many bolters in the 1920s but Sackville was the most celebrated of them all in result of her relentless affairs and wild sex parties. She inspired many writers and artists, from [[Nancy Mitford]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Mitford|first=Nancy|title=Love in a Cold Climate|publisher=Random House|year=1949|isbn=978-0-307-74135-6}}</ref> to [[Greta Garbo]]<ref>{{cite video|people=Greta Garbo and John Gilbert|title=[[A Woman of Affairs]]|medium=Silent film|date=1928}}</ref> but Idina's compelling charm masked the pain of betrayal and heartbreak.<ref>{{cite book|last=Osborne|first=Frances|title=The Bolter|publisher=Knopf|date=June 2009|isbn=978-0-307-27014-6|url=https://archive.org/details/bolter00osbo}}</ref>
At the age of 13, Osborne opened a newspaper to discover that [[Idina Sackville]] was her mother's grandmother. Osborne used family letters and diaries including those of Idina's first husband (Osborne's great-grandfather) and the shared son of him and Idina (Osborne's grandfather). She abandoned him for the first 19 years of his life.<ref name="Frances Website"/>
''The Bolter'' was published in the U.K. by [[Virago Press]] dated 2008 and in the U.S. by [[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]] in June 2009 and in trade paperback by [[Vintage Books]] in May 2010. It was [[San Francisco Chronicle]]'s Best Book of the Year<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/20/RV831B46QJ.DTL&type=books&ao=4|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120417090925/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/20/RV831B46QJ.DTL&type=books&ao=4|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 April 2012|title=The 100 best fiction, nonfiction books of 2009|publisher=SanFranciscioChronicle.com|date=20 December 2009|accessdate=20 June 2012}}</ref> and an [[O: The Oprah Magazine]] No. 1 Terrific Read.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/10-Terrific-Reads-of-2009-Book-Reviews| title=10 Terrific Reads of 2009|publisher=Oprah.com|date=December 2009|accessdate=20 June 2012}}</ref>
===''Park Lane''===
''Park Lane'' is Osborne's first novel, though she used her own ancestry as inspiration. It is set in a mansion on London's [[Park Lane (road)|Park Lane]] in 1914. Downstairs is housemaid Grace Campbell pretending to her family she is working in a well-paid office job. Upstairs is disillusioned debutante Beatrice Masters. Beatrice secretly joins a group of radical militant suffragettes and begins a relationship with a man who would be forbidden from even entering Beatrice's house. Grace and Beatrice both will discover how their life decisions will affect their future amid the rapidly changing world of [[World War I]], which brings down the barriers that separate the two women.<ref>{{cite book| last = Osborne| first = Frances| title = Park Lane| publisher = Vintage| date = June 2012| isbn = 978-0-345-80328-3| url = https://archive.org/details/parklanenovel00osbo}}</ref>
''Park Lane'' was published by [[Vintage Books]] in June 2012, and was rated a top ten read of 2012 by Easy Living<ref name="Frances Website"/> along with being Red Magazine's Book of the Month<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.redonline.co.uk/reviews/book-reviews/park-lane-by-frances-osborne-review|title= Park Lane Review| publisher=RedOnline.co.uk| date = 30 May 2012| accessdate= 20 June 2012}}</ref> and a Bookseller's Choice in the UK.<ref name="Frances Website"/>
==Personal life== Frances married the future [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]], [[George Osborne]] on 4 April 1998.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} The Osbornes have two children. In February 2019, they purchased a £3 million chalet in the [[Swiss Alps]] resort of [[Verbier]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/george-osborne-chills-out-with-3m-chalet-in-verbier-jmgbmwkcm|title=George Osborne chills out with £3m chalet in Verbier| work=[[The Times]]| date=2 February 2019|last1=Humphries|first1=Will|last2=Clatworthy|first2=Ben|last3=Lewis|first3=Carol|access-date=20 November 2019}}</ref> Shortly afterwards, on 1 July 2019, they announced that they were to divorce.<ref name=divorce>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48833570 |work=[[BBC News]] |title=George Osborne and wife Frances announce divorce |date=1 July 2019}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name=TheTelegraph2014-03-29> {{cite news | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/kate-middleton/10719247/Why-everyone-wants-a-Marlborough-missus.html | title = Why everyone wants a Marlborough missus | publisher = [[The Telegraph (UK)]] | author = Victoria Lambert | date = 29 March 2014 | accessdate = 9 February 2015 | quote = Most famous, of course, is the Duchess of Cambridge, 'wife of' our future king. But see also, Samantha Cameron, 'wife of' the Prime Minister. Frances Osborne, 'wife of' the Chancellor. Sally Bercow, 'wife of' the Speaker. Diana Fox, 'wife of' the Governor of the Bank of England. }} </ref> }}
==External links== *[http://francesosborne.com Personal website] *[http://www.booksattransworld.co.uk/minisites/lillas_feast/home.htm Publisher's website] *[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01k043m BBC Park Lane Review] *[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/9314979/Frances-Osborne-picks-five-books-on-the-Edwardians.html The Telegraph Frances Osborne] *[http://bookoxygen.com/?p=1625 Book Oxygen Park Lane Review] *''[https://archive.org/details/lillasfeasttrues00osbo Lilla's Feast]'' (2004) {{Clear}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, Frances}} [[Category:1969 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:People educated at Marlborough College]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford]] [[Category:British writers]] [[Category:Daughters of life peers]] [[Category:English people of Scottish descent]] [[Category:Place of birth missing (living people)]] [[Category:Spouses of British politicians]] [[Category:People educated at Windlesham House School]]