Sarah Fraser Events
The American-Scottish Foundation is delighted to have acclaimed author The Hon Sarah Fraser of Lovat join us for two exciting events during the 20th Anniversary of Tartan Week in New York City.
Hear insights and thoughts around The Last Highlander and Ms Fraser's latest book "The Prince Who Would Be King" released just prior to her visit.
EVENT ONE - APRIL 6, 2018
Join for Tea, Talk and Book Signing with celebrated author Sarah Fraser
Concluding with wine and cheese, and toast to Scotland
- Date April 6, 2018
- Time: 4-7 PM
- Location: 3 West Club, 3 West 51st Street
Discover the last Highlander and the real OutlanderSarah Fraser won the Scottish Saltire First Book of the Year award for her highly praised debut The Last Highlander, which in 2016 also became a New York Times ebook bestseller. It is now the subject of a documentary, available on HistoryHit.TV. Both book and film dramatically recreate the story of Lord Lovat, last of the great Scottish- Celtic Highland chiefs. Between 1670 and 1747, Lovat lived in tumultuous times and met a bloody end on the scaffold, beheaded for his part in Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite rebellion. He has had a lively afterlife as grandfather of Jamie Fraser, the hero of Diana Gabaldon’s hit series, Outlander. But truth is as strange as fiction, as Sarah will show in her talk about the life and afterlife of this great old style Fraser clan chief. Diana Gabaldon called The last Highlander ‘a great book.’ The Afternoon is hosted by the American-Scottish Foundation together with Scottish Clans & Castles who have been organizing Outlander location tours for the past 12 years and hope many of their past guests will join and toast the 20th Anniversary of Tartan Day and their love of Scotland With grateful thanks to our associate Sponsors Harper Collins, Walkers Shortbread and Harney Teas.
Event Tickets
| Member | Non-Member | |
| TEA TALK WINE 4pm - 7pm Talk, Tea, Book signing, with Wine & Cheese Post Talk | $45 | $55 |
A limited number of copies of each book will be available for purchase and signing at the event. To ensure we have enough copies you can purchase them in advance along with your event ticket.
Event Tickets with Books
| Member | Non-Member | |
| TEA TALK WINE & Copy of The Last Highlander (paperback) | $60 | $70 |
| TEA TALK WINE & Copy of The Prince Who Would Be King (paperback) | $65 | $75 |
| TEA TALK WINE & Copies of both books | $80 | $90 |
ASF is joined in the hosting of Tea with a Highlander by Scottish Clans and Castles who focus on bespoke tours of Scotland and its castles. Clans & Castles, founded in 2000, offers driver-guided and personalized vacations throughout Scotland, specializing in taking people to see their ancient clan lands. Working closely with a number of Clan Chiefs and castle owners Clans and Castles offer intimate knowledge not just of the Highlands and of the top tourist attractions, but also of the roads less travelled including the Scottish Borders. The world wide phenomena that is Outlander has led to the development of Clans & Castle bespoke Outlander tours with clients returning again and again enchanted by Scotland and wanting to discover more.
EVENT TWO - APRIL 9, 2018
The Prince who Would be King - the life and death of Henry Stuart The Royal Stuarts ruled Scotland from 1371, before they came to England. Joining the thrones upon the death of Elizabeth I they united the Crowns and gave birth to Britain. In her acclaimed book, The Prince who would be King, Sarah Fraser shows how Crown Prince Henry Stuart, Prince of Wales came to be seen as the stellar Stuart, who would break the royal mould. Born at Stirling Castle, Scotland in 1594, he died in agony at St James’s Palace, London in 1612. His life spans an extraordinary period in history – the Union of Crowns , the gunpowder Plot, the run up to the longest, bloodiest European war until World War I, the founding of British America and the beginning of a world class Royal Art Collection of books, paintings, coins, jewels, armour and gorgeous palaces. Henry came to be seen as the epitome of a renaissance prince – ambitious, talented, and frightening. His ambition seemed to have no bounds. Acclaimed for its dramatic recreation of a life cut short, the book is now the subject of a BBC documentary, The Best King we Never Had. In her talk Sarah will bring Henry, his Court and his era to sparkling life.
Join acclaimed author Sarah Fraser as she shows how became the “Best King We Never Had.”
- Date: April 9, 2018
- Time: 6 PM
- Location: The General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmens Building 20 West 44th Street, New York
| ASF/ROMember | Guest | |
| Talk and Book Signing | $35 | $40 |
A limited number of copies of each book will be available for purchase and signing at the event. To ensure we have enough copies you can purchase them in advance along with your event ticket. Event Tickets with Books
| ASF/ROMember | Guest | |
| Talk, Book Signing & Copy of The Last Highlander (paperback) | $50 | $55 |
| Talk, Book Signing & Copy of The Prince Who Would Be King (paperback) | $55 | $65 |
| Talk, Book Signing & Copies of both books | $70 | $80 |
Sarah Fraser Biography
Sarah Fraser is married to a Lovat Fraser, the son of heroic World War II Commando Shimi, Lord Lovat. She undertook a doctoral thesis on obscene Gaelic poetry, and has since contributed to TV and radio programmes on Gaelic issues, the clans and British history. Sarah has four children and she and her husband live both in the Highlands and London.
The Last Highlander
Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, was the last of the great Scottish chiefs – and the last nobleman executed for treason. Determined to seek his fortune with the exiled Jacobite king in France, Fraser acted as a spy for both the Stuarts and the Hanoverians; claimed to be both Protestant and Roman Catholic.
In July 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie launched his last attempt to seize back the throne, supported by Fraser and his clans. They were defeated at Culloden. Fraser was found hiding in a tree.
This swashbuckling spy story recreates an extraordinary period of history in its retelling of Fraser’s life. He is surely one of Scotland’s most notorious and romantic figures, a cunning and ambitious soldier who died a martyr for his country and an independent Scotland.
The Prince Who Would be King
Henry Stuart, Prince of Wales was once the hope of Britain. Eldest son to James VI of Scotland, James I of England, Henry was the epitome of heroic Renaissance princely virtue, his life set against a period about as rich and momentous as any.
Educated to rule, Henry was interested in everything. His court was awash with leading artists, musicians, writers and composers such as Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. He founded a royal art collection of European breadth, amassed a vast collection of priceless books, led grand renovations of royal palaces and mounted operatic, highly politicised masques.
But his ambitions were even greater. He embraced cutting-edge science, funded telescopes and automata, was patron of the North West Passage Company and wanted to sail through the barriers of the known world to explore new continents. He reviewed and modernised Britain’s naval and military capacity and in his advocacy for the colonisation of North America he helped to transform the world.
At his death aged only eighteen, and considering himself to be as much a European as British, he was preparing to stake his claim to be the next leader of Protestant Christendom in the struggle to resist a resurgent militant Catholicism.
In this rich and lively book, Sarah Fraser seeks to restore Henry to his place in history. Set against the bloody traumas of the Thirty Years’ War, the writing of the King James Bible, the Gunpowder Plot and the dark tragedies pouring from Shakespeare’s quill, Henry’s life is the last great forgotten Jacobean tale: the story of a man who, had he lived, might have saved Britain from King Charles I, his spaniels and the Civil War with its appalling loss of life his misrule engendered.