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Frances Hélène Jeanne Stonor SaundersFRSL (born 14 April 1966) is a British journalist and historian.

Frances Stonor Saunders is the daughter ofJulia Camoys Stonor and Donald Robin Slomnicki Saunders. Her father, who died in 1997, was a Jewish refugee from Bucharest, Romania, born to a British national with Polish and Russian ancestry.^[1][2] Jews named Slomnicki died in theBelzec extermination camp; the fate of two great-aunts Saunders was unable to determine. Her parents divorced when Saunders was eight.^[3]

Saunders attendedSt Mary's School Ascot, where she was head girl.^[4]

A few years after graduating (in 1987)^[5] with a first-class honours degree in English fromUniversity of Oxford (having studied atSt Anne's College),^[6] Saunders embarked on a career as a television film-maker.Hidden Hands: A Different History of Modernism, made forChannel 4 in 1995, discussed the connection between American art critics andAbstract Expressionist painters with theCIA.^[7]Who Paid the Piper?: CIA and the Cultural Cold War (1999) (in the USA:The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters), her first book, was developed from her work on the documentary, concentrating on the history of the covertly CIA-fundedCongress for Cultural Freedom. The book won theRoyal Historical Society's William Gladstone Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.^[8] It has since been published in fifteen languages.^[8] Saunders' other works reflect her academic background as amedievalist.

In 2005, after some years as the arts editor and associate editor of theNew Statesman, Saunders resigned in protest over the sacking ofPeter Wilby, the then-editor. In 2004^[9] and 2005^[10] forRadio 3, she presentedMeetings of Minds, two three-part series on the meetings of intellectuals at significant points in history. She is also a regular contributor to Radio 3'sNightwaves and other radio programmes.

Her second book,Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman (in the US:The Devil's Broker), recounts the life and career ofJohn Hawkwood, acondottiere of the 14th century.^[5] English-born, Hawkwood (1320–1394) made a notorious career as a participant in the confused and treacherous power politics of thePapacy, France, and Italy.The Woman Who Shot Mussolini (2010) is a biography ofViolet Gibson,^[11] the Anglo-Irish aristocrat who shotBenito Mussolini in 1926, wounding him slightly.

Of Saunders' book,The Suitcase: Six Attempts to Cross a Border, Elisa Segrave wrote inThe Spectator: "This is a complex, occasionally frustrating book with fascinating historical nuggets." The author "certainly brings home the anguish of war. She also examines memory, its importance and its unpredictability."^[3] James McConnachie wrote inThe Sunday Times: "As for that suitcase, it would be unfair to say more. I’ll only warn that the payoff isn’t a Hollywood explosion. It is more an arthouse twist — but one that, like this book, will haunt you."^[1] Saunders was awarded thePEN Ackerley Prize for outstanding memoir and autobiography forThe Suitcase: Six Attempts to Cross a Border in July 2022.^[12]

Saunders was elected as a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature in 2018.^[8] She lives inLondon.

• "Modern art was CIA 'weapon'."The Independent (Jun. 14, 2013) (orig. 22 Oct. 1995).
• "The Writer and the Valet."London Review of Books, vol. 36, no. 18 (Sep. 25, 2014).
• "Stuck on the Flypaper: Frances Stonor Saunders on MI5 and the Hobsbawm File."London Review of Books, vol. 37, no. 7 (Apr. 9, 2015).
• "Where on Earth Are You?"London Review of Books, vol. 38, no. 5 (Mar. 3, 2016).
• "The Suitcase."London Review of Books, vol. 42, no. 15 (Jul. 30, 2020).
• "The Suitcase: Part Two."London Review of Books, vol. 42, no. 16 (Aug. 3, 2020).
• "The Suitcase: Part Three."London Review of Books, vol. 42, no. 17 (Sep. 10, 2020).

• Who Paid the Piper?: CIA and the Cultural Cold War. London:Granta (1999).ISBN 1862070296.^[13]
  • U.S. ed.:The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters. New York:The New Press (2000).ISBN 978-1595589149.^[14]
• Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman. London:Faber and Faber (2004).ISBN 057121908X.
  • U.S. ed.:The Devil's Broker: Seeking Gold, God, and Glory in Fourteenth-Century Italy. New York:Fourth Estate (2005).ISBN 006077729X.
• The Woman Who Shot Mussolini. London:Faber and Faber (2010).ISBN 978-0571239771.

• Hidden Hands: A Hidden History of Modernism. London:Channel 4 (1995). 4 episodes.
  • Incl. 32-page booklet.ISBN 978-1851441457.

• Articles at MuckRack
• Appearances onC-SPAN
• Frances Stonor Saunders atIMDb
• Frances Stonor Saunders atencyclopedia.com

• 1966 births
• Living people
• Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford
• English people of American descent
• English historians
• English journalists
• Writers from London
• Historians of the Central Intelligence Agency
• Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
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