Journalism & Speaking

Frances has written for a wide range of websites, newspapers and magazines. These include the (London) Times and Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Wall Street Journal, both American and British Vogue, Town and Country, the Daily Beast and the Huffington Post. 

She has appeared on numerous radio and television programmes on both sides of the Atlantic, including Woman’s Hour, The Diane Rehm Show, Charlie Rose, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, CBS This Morning, Morning Joe, and West Coast Live.

Frances has appeared at many literary festivals, including Hay, Oxford, Cheltenham and Shanghai. She has given The National Arts Club’s Carole Klein Annual Memorial Lecture and spoken at, inter alia, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International Summit, and London’s Women’s City Network. She has also given talks at a number of the leading private women’s clubs in New York, Boston, and Chicago.

She speaks on topics inspired by her research and writing into the lives of extraordinary women, from the great-grandmother who entertained guests as she lay naked in the bath to comparisons between the suffragettes and current campaigns.

Topics

Why I like women who break the rules: Rule-breakers can be game-changers 

Stories of turning setbacks into great leaps forward: Women who have turned disadvantages into the very advantages that drove them to success

Sex in the Downton Abbey era: Women were far more sexually misbehaved than you might think

Lessons for today of women's fight for the vote: As women's rights are at risk of being eroded today we should not forget the powerful example of the suffragettes a century ago

To see Frances giving a fifteen minute talk about why she likes women who break the rules click here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vhrKKwbf8I
 

Why I like women who break the rules

Posted on June 23, 2016

Speaking to Fortune's Most Powerful Women International Summit, Frances spoke about rule-breaking women. Idina Sackville, who could ‘whistle a chap off a branch.’ In the 1920’s and 30’s, living high in the Kenyan hills, she entertained her guests in her bathroom as she lay naked in her green onyx bath. She divorced and married a total of five times, and had lovers ‘without number.’ Frances was hooked.

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The Lessons of the British Women’s Fight for the Vote

Posted on July 3, 2012

As women’s rights are at risk of being eroded today, we should not forget their powerful example of the suffragettes a century ago – that change, or prevention, will not happen unless a great deal of noise is made. Frances Osborne writes in The Daily Beast

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Sex in the Downton Abbey Era

Posted on June 18, 2012

Women in the time of Downton Abbey were far more sexually misbehaved that you might think. Lady Mary and her heartbreakingly handsome Turkish visitor were far from alone in going to bed together out of wedlock.

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