Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel
Name	Hilary Mantel
Caption	Mantel at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2014
Birth name	Hilary Mary Thompson
Birth date	6 July 1952
Birth place	Glossop, Derbyshire, England
Death date	22 September 2022
Death place	Exeter, Devon, England
Occupation	Novelist, short story writer, essayist, critic
Nationality	British
Education	University of Sheffield (LLB), University of Sheffield (BA)
Notableworks	Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, The Mirror & the Light, A Place of Greater Safety, Beyond Black
Awards	Booker Prize (2009, 2012), Walter Scott Prize, Costa Book Award, Hawthornden Prize, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE)

Hilary Mantel was a celebrated British author renowned for her profound historical fiction and incisive contemporary novels. She achieved global acclaim for her Wolf Hall Trilogy, a masterful reimagining of the life of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII. Her work, characterized by its psychological depth, rich prose, and radical re-examination of history, earned her numerous accolades including two Booker Prize awards. Beyond her historical narratives, she also produced acclaimed works exploring modern Britain, autobiography, and the supernatural.

Biography

Born Hilary Mary Thompson in Glossop, she spent part of her early childhood in Hadfield before her family moved to Romiley, Cheshire. She studied Law at the London School of Economics before transferring to the University of Sheffield, where she graduated with a degree in Jurisprudence. In 1972, she married geologist Gerald McEwen, and the couple lived abroad for several years, including in Botswana and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. These experiences later informed her memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. She suffered from enduring health problems, diagnosed with endometriosis and its complications, which she wrote about with searing honesty. She lived in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, for many years until her death in Exeter in 2022.

Literary career

Her literary career began with the novel Every Day is Mother's Day in 1985, followed by its sequel Vacant Possession. She gained significant critical attention with A Place of Greater Safety, an epic novel about the French Revolution focusing on Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Maximilien Robespierre. However, international superstardom arrived with Wolf Hall in 2009, which won the Booker Prize and captivated readers with its vivid portrayal of Tudor politics. She continued to write across genres, publishing the critically acclaimed contemporary novel Beyond Black and the short story collection The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher. Her career was also marked by influential essays and criticism, notably her London Review of Books lectures on royal bodies.

Works

Her bibliography is distinguished by its range and depth. The cornerstone is the Wolf Hall Trilogy, comprising Wolf Hall, its sequel Bring Up the Bodies (which won a second Booker Prize), and the concluding volume The Mirror & the Light. Other major historical works include A Place of Greater Safety and The Giant, O'Brien. Her contemporary novels, such as Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, draw on her time in Saudi Arabia, while Fludd and Beyond Black blend realism with elements of the gothic and metaphysical. She also authored the memoir Giving Up the Ghost and a collection of essays, Mantel Pieces.

Themes and style

Her writing is consistently preoccupied with power, history, and the instability of identity. She meticulously researched periods like the Tudor dynasty and the French Revolution to explore the psychological machinations of figures like Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn. A hallmark of her style is the use of a close third-person narrative, immersing the reader in the protagonist's consciousness with immediacy and present-tense urgency. Her prose is celebrated for its precision, wit, and lyrical density, capable of conveying complex political intrigue and intimate human vulnerability. Recurring motifs include the haunting presence of the past, the body in pain, and the intersection of the mundane with the spectral.

Awards and recognition

She is one of the most decorated British writers of her generation. She made history by winning the Booker Prize twice for Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, and the trilogy's final installment, The Mirror & the Light, was shortlisted. She also received the Costa Book Award for both Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, and the latter won the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. In 2006, she was awarded the Hawthornden Prize. For her services to literature, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2014 Birthday Honours.

Legacy

She transformed the landscape of contemporary historical fiction, bringing a modernist sensibility and psychological realism to the genre. Her portrayal of Thomas Cromwell challenged centuries of popular representation stemming from Shakespeare and Bolt's A Man for All Seasons. The success of the Wolf Hall Trilogy inspired major television adaptations by the BBC and Masterpiece, introducing her work to a global audience. Her essays, particularly on historical figures and the British monarchy, sparked widespread public debate. She is remembered as a writer of formidable intellect and imagination whose work continues to influence how readers engage with the past.

Category:British novelists Category:Booker Prize winners Category:20th-century British novelists Category:21st-century British novelists