Frances Donaldson

A biography of one of the London theatre's most important wits and playwrights. Donaldson discusses the life and work of the man who wrote over twenty plays and musicals that were produced in London in the first half of the 20th century.Author BiographyLady Donaldson of Kingsbridge (1907-1994), a Br...

The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden is home of two of the most famous opera and ballet companies in the world. In this official history, Frances Donaldson discusses Covent Garden's many legendary achievements - Der Rosenkavalier with Lotte Lehmann, the unparalleled partnership of Fonteyn and Nureye...

In his lifetime, Evelyn Waugh's personality and his attitude to the post-war world aroused almost as much controversy as his works did admiration. It is with Evelyn Waugh the man as she knew him that Frances Donaldson is principally concerned. His own autobiography covered the first 25 years of his ...

Frances Donaldson led a wonderfully multi-faceted life. As the daughter of the playwright Frederick Lonsdale, she grew up in the frivolous world of 1920s cafe society, yet she became a committed socialist. As the wife of Lord Donaldson, who was on the board of both London opera houses and was subseq...

No names are dropped for the sake of it. No mad and witty intimacies with the great are vaunted. Few wild parties are attended, despite the eccentric pressures of Frances Donaldson's father, the playwright Frederick Lonsdale, whose personality is one of the book's delights. In her neat and good-temp...

In March 1912 the Postmaster-General accepted the Marconi Company's tender to build the first six stations of a wireless chain to link up the British Empire. The negotiations had been conducted for the Marconi Company by the Managing Director, Godfrey Isaacs, brother of Sir Rufus Isaacs, the Attorne...