Award-winning historical biographer to help National Trust for Scotland’s Fighting Fund at Culloden event
Historian Flora Fraser will be the first author to speak at Culloden Battlefield since the coronavirus pandemic.
The event will support Culloden’s Fighting Fund, a fundraiser set up to protect the site from threat of development.
Ms Fraser, who will donate the proceeds from ticket sales, will be in conversation with James Ryan, visitor services assistant at Culloden on Sunday September 17 at 5.30pm.
They will discuss her latest book, Pretty Young Rebel, which follows the story of Scottish heroine Flora Macdonald who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape after his Jacobite army was defeated at Culloden in 1746.
But her efforts resulted in her capture and detention in London. She was released the following year and Flora went on to marry and emigrate to North Carolina – where she became caught up in the American Revolutionary War.
Flora Fraser, who was named after Flora Macdonald, grew up between London and Scotland and studied classics at Oxford University before becoming a professional writer.
Her mother is the noted historical biographer, Antonia Fraser, and her grandmother was Elizabeth Longford, celebrated for her books on Queen Victoria and the Duke of Wellington.
In 2002 Flora set up the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography to commemorate her grandmother.
She is the author of Beloved Emma: The Life of Emma Hamilton, The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline, Princess: The Daughters of George III, Venus of Empire: The Life of Pauline Bonaparte and George & Martha Washington: A Revolutionary Marriage, which won the 2016 George Washington Prize.
"I cannot remember a time when I did not know the story of Flora Macdonald," she said.
"It has been a joy to deeply research Flora’s story and learn the full extent of her undoubted charm and canny ways.
"I am thrilled to be speaking at Culloden, which is such an important location in Jacobite history. I’m also delighted to support the Culloden Fighting Fund."
Gail Cleaver, operations manager for Culloden Cluster, said: "We are excited to host Flora Fraser and are pleased to say that all proceeds from this event will be going to Culloden’s Fighting Fund which will help us work toward protecting the battlefield for future generations.
"As a charity we are dependent on our members and supporters to care for our special places and we are delighted that Flora is working with us."
Pretty Young Rebel is published by Bloomsbury and is available in paperback.
Tickets for the event at Culloden cost £3 and are available to buy from www.eventbrite.co.uk.
She will also be speaking at an event at Inverness Museum on September 16 from 11am to 12.30. Tickets are available at www.highlifehighland.com/inverness-museum-and-art-gallery/pretty-young-rebel.
