Frances Osborne

Frances Victoria Osborne (née Howell) (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 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.

She was the first wife of George Osborne, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Early life and education

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.

Lilla's Feast, published by Doubleday in 2004, has been translated into six different languages, is a Kiriyama Prize Notable Book and a New York Times Editor's Choice. to Greta Garbo but Idina's compelling charm masked the pain of betrayal and heartbreak.

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. and an O: The Oprah Magazine No. 1 Terrific Read.

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 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.

Park Lane was published by Vintage Books in June 2012, and was rated a top ten read of 2012 by Easy Living and a Bookseller's Choice in the UK. Shortly afterwards, on 1 July 2019, they announced that they were to divorce.