Anthea Mary Fraser (born 1930) is a novelist. Her mother was a published novelist and Anthea began composing poems and stories before she could write. At the age of five she announced that she wanted to be an author. However, despite having been a prolific writer in school, she did not become a professional writer until after her two daughters were born.
Her first professional publications were short stories. Her first novel was published in 1970. Her first significant success was with her 1974 novel Laura Possessed, which had a paranormal theme, and was followed by 6 other similarly themed novels. She then wrote some romantic suspense stories before turning to writing crime fiction.
She has created two mystery novel series, the first featuring 'Detective Chief Inspector David Webb' with the Shillingham police. There are 16 novels in this series, the last twelve of which bear titles based on the lyrics to the traditional English folk song Green Grow the Rushes, O.
The second series features 'Rona Parish', a biographer and freelance journalist.
Anthea Fraser served as secretary of the Crime Writers' Association from 1986 to 1996. She has also published five novels under the pen name 'Vanessa Graham'.
