Frances Osborne Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Frances Osborne is an accomplished published English author born in 1969.

She is recognized for writing her books Lilla’s Feast, which was a biography that was translated into 6 languages and is a Kiriyama Prize Notable Book. She would follow this up with a 2008 biography The Bolter, which was a Sunday Times No.1 bestseller and was shortlisted for Best Read in Britain. Her novel Park Lane would go on to be shortlisted for the Historical Crime Writers’ Association/Goldsoboro’s Books First Novel Award.

Frances has written for many different leading newspapers, news sites, and magazines located on both sides of the Atlantic. She has made appearances on different primetime television and radio shows, everything from the Woman’s House in the UK to Charlie Rose in the United States.

Frances speaks at literary festivals and different institutions on the topics that have been inspired by the women in her books and focuses on everything from topics of scandal in the Edwardian era to issues that face women today.

She has been a barrister, a journalist, and an investment research analyst before becoming a full time author. She was a judge in 2015 for the Man Booker Prize and is always working on her next story. She was first wife to George Osborne, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, having gotten married in 1998. They would go on to have two children together before ultimately announcing their intention to divorce in 2019.

She attended Marlborough College before going on to the University of Oxford, where she was trained as a barrister. During that time she would go on to be friends with Justine Thornton, future wife of Ed Miliband. She would later go on a backpacking trip with her all across South America. Prior to becoming a full time author, Frances worked in finance, law, and journalism.

Lilla’s Feast is a 2007 novel written by Frances Osborne. It is the first biography written by this author and follows along with the life of Lilla Eckford, the author’s paternal great-grandmother. She wrote a cookery and housekeeping book while in a Japanese internment camp.

The author was 14 when her great-grandmother passed at 100 years old. Following her death, she found a box full of faded letters that had been exchanged between the family. The author read through the letters and they showed the story of why she never gave up hope. The book has been translated into six languages and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a Kiriyama Prize Notable Book.

If you’ve been looking for something new and original to read, then this book might be the right nonfiction pick for you. When France’s great-grandmother Lilla was 100 years old, she still remained as elegant as ever. She was outfitted in fitted black lace and white diamonds that sparkled.

To her great-grandchildren, Lilla was an ally as well as a wonder filled with mystery. Her bedroom was full of treasures that had been collected from every side of the world and every part of it. She would very rarely mention the internment camps where she spent much of World War II, or the cookbook that she wrote to help herself survive it.

Lilla’s life may have seemed to have a surface polish, but under the surface, it had been anything but effortless. She was born to English parents in 1982 in the port city of Chefoo. Lilla was an identical twin. When she was growing up, she knew deprivation as well as great privilege, love and its absence.

The one constant that went on was the deep appreciation that she had for place and food. Whether they were Shanghai noodles, chutney from British India, or English roasts, Lilla loved good food and great surroundings. She was raised to believe that these things could bring one a long way toward happiness. The story that she tells is full of the stuff of good fiction, from distant locations to an improvident marriage to a bad mother in law, two world wars, and a dramatic suicide.

Her incredible cookbook was something that she came up with while she was close to starving. It doesn’t mention wartime rations, donkey meat, or rotten vegetables. This food journal is now stowed in the Imperial War Museum in London and features everyone being safe and warm inside of their homes. On the pages are butterscotch, cream puffs, and soup. In the writing of this book, this survivor was able to transform these moments full of suffering into delicious escape.

The result is Lilla’s feast, the inspiring story of a regular woman who dealt with the changes that the world threw her with an incredible determination. Check out this book to follow along with every single word for yourself.

The Bolter is a 2010 book by Frances Osborne. This is the biography of the women who was a ‘bolter’ as she fled her marriage. There were many of them in the twenties but Idina Sackville was the most celebrated of them all as a result of her affairs and wild sex parties, inspiring other writers and artists but also using her charm to cover up for the pain of betrayal and heartbreak.

The story is inspired by Osborne opening a newspaper at 13 years old and finding out that Idina Sackville was the grandmother of her mother. Using family letters and diaries, the author puts together a biography of this relative in her family that ended up being the San Francisco Chronicle’s Best Book of the Year and picked as a No. 1 Terrific Read by O: The Oprah Magazine.

This book was a national bestseller as well as a best book of the year. It is the story of Idina Sackville, a woman who NPR said that even today ‘could get tongues wagging’. Her affairs, sex parties, and flaunting of convention shocked those in high society and would inspire others.

Here the author puts together all of the information that she has and follows her from London to Kenya where she saw over the antics of the Happy Valley Set. Her energy still burning nearly a century later, this is a fascinating look at a lady that really lived. Pick up a copy of The Bolter to find out what happens in an account that People called ‘Intoxicating’.