Hilary Mantel (1952–2022)
Author of Wolf Hall
About the Author
Hilary Mantel was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, England on July 6, 1952. She studied law at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University. She worked as a social worker in Botswana for five years, followed by four years in Saudi Arabia. She returned to Britain in the mid-1980s. In 1987 she show more was awarded the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for an article about Jeddah. She worked as a film critic for The Spectator from 1987 to 1991. She has written numerous books including Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, A Place of Greater Safety, A Change of Climate, The Giant, O'Brien, Giving up the Ghost: A Memoir, and Beyond Black. She has won several awards for her work including the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, the Cheltenham Prize and the Southern Arts Literature Prize for Fludd; the 1996 Hawthornden Prize for An Experiment in Love, the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Wolf Hall, and the 2012 Man Booker Prize for Bring up the Bodies. She made The New York Times Best Seller List with her title The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Hilary Mantel
Wolf Hall Trilogy (The Mirror and the Light, Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies) (2020) 61 copies, 1 review
The World of Wolf Hall: A Reading Guide to Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies (2019) 21 copies, 1 review
H MANTEL-WHY I BECAME AN HISTORIAN 2 copies
The Right to Life 1 copy
Wintertrip & Iemands kind 1 copy
De tegenwoordige tijd 1 copy
Anna Bolena 1 copy
SALLA E UJQËRVE 1 copy
De reus O'Brian 1 copy
Mantel Hilary 1 copy
Cinderella in Autumn 1 copy
The Hilary Mantel Collection 1 copy
Associated Works
Religion and the Decline of Magic : Studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England (1971) — Introduction, some editions — 1,546 copies, 20 reviews
Literary Genius: 25 Classic Writers Who Define English & American Literature (2007) — Contributor — 95 copies, 2 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Mantel, Hilary
- Legal name
- Mantel, Hilary Mary
- Other names
- Thompson, Hilary Mary (birth)
- Birthdate
- 1952-07-06
- Date of death
- 2022-09-22
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Harrytown Convent
London School of Economics (law)
University of Sheffield (LL.B|1973) - Occupations
- short story writer
film critic
social worker
novelist
essayist - Organizations
- The Spectator
- Awards and honors
- Royal Society of Literature (fellow | 1990)
Order of the British Empire (Commander, 2006)
Order of the British Empire (Dame Commander, 2014)
David Cohen British Literature Prize (2013)
Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement (2016)
Shiva Naipaul Prize (1987) (show all 11)
Cheltenham Prize (1990)
Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize (1990)
National Book Critics Circle Award (2009)
Walter Scott Prize (2010)
British Academy President's Medal (2016) - Agent
- Bill Hamilton (AM Heath)
- Relationships
- McEwen, Gerald (husband)
- Short biography
- Hilary Thompson was the eldest of three children in a Catholic English family of Irish descent. She took the surname of Mantel from her unofficial stepfather after her parents separated. After university, she worked as a social worker at a geriatric hospital and as a sales assistant in a department store. In 1972, she married Gerald McEwen, a geologist, and the couple later lived in Botswana and Saudi Arabia. She published a memoir of this time, "Someone to Disturb," in the London Review of Books. Her first novel, Every Day is Mother's Day, was published in 1985. Returning to England, Hilary Mantel became the film critic of The Spectator and a reviewer for a number of newspapers and magazines in Britain and the USA.
- Cause of death
- stroke
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Glossop, Derbyshire, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Hadfield, Derbyshire, England, UK
Romiley, Greater Manchester, England, UK
London, Middlesex, England, UK
Botswana
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Surrey, England, UK (show all 7)
Budleigh Salterton, Devon, England, UK - Place of death
- Exeter, Devon, England
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Discussions
OT Hilary Mantel obituary in Folio Society Devotees (September 2022)
Wolf Hall and fiction vs. history in Reformation Era: History and Literature (December 2021)
Group Read: The Cromwell Trilogy: Bring Up The Bodies in Club Read 2021 (May 2021)
Group Read: The Cromwell Trilogy in Club Read 2021 (March 2021)
BRITISH AUTHOR CHALLENGE DECEMBER - MANTEL & WODEHOUSE in 75 Books Challenge for 2015 (December 2015)
The Smiler69/Chatterbox Tutored Read of "Wolf Hall": from June 1 until whenever we're done! in 75 Books Challenge for 2012 (December 2014)
Group Read: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (spoiler thread) in 75 Books Challenge for 2012 (November 2014)
Wolf Hall Tutored Read: Wherein Chatterbox undertakes to lead Miela through the tangled worlds of He in 75 Books Challenge for 2013 (August 2013)
GROUP READ - WOLF HALL June 2012 in The 12 in 12 Category Challenge (August 2012)
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel in Booker Prize (July 2012)
Group Read: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (main thread) in 75 Books Challenge for 2012 (June 2012)
Beyond Black (no spoilers) in Orange January/July (January 2012)
WOLF HALL by Hilary Mantel in Orange January/July (October 2011)
Reviews
From Little Things Big Things Grow
Alone in her school-room and her house below the tropic of Capricorn she saw her path in life, tangled, choked, thorny, like one of the cut lines that ran through the bush and melted away into the desert. Later course she wondered at herself. How could she not have seen the road ahead. Even in the early days before the wisdom conferred by the event, any trouble, any possible trouble seemed to settle around the sullen fugitive form of Enoch.
This is the show more story of a marriage and an unexpected tragic event. The setting is 1950s - 1980s Southern Africa and England. The book jumps back and forth between the African and English years and it may take a little effort in the very beginning to adjust. But any effort is well-worth it.
From early on in the marriage we sense an atmosphere of impending doom. Doom of an event that seems to be going to happen in Africa but we can’t be sure.
Ralph and Anna Eldred spend the early years of their marriage trying to “do good” in Africa. Although their relationship with their Protestant god is tenuous, the Eldreds try to use mission houses as bases for their work to improve the lives of the locals.
Their first posting is South Africa from where they are eventually expelled because of their anti-apartheid views. Not wanting to leave Africa they agree to be sent to a remote mission house in Bechuanaland (now Botswana). It’s bleak and isolated, and while I was reading the book I was reminded of Doris Lessing’s early works set in Rhodesia. Particularly with the descriptions of the landscapes and of the loneliness of isolated white women, my mind was drawn to Lessing’s The Grass is Singing, which I also highly recommend.
The book is about our actions and their consequences, good and evil, secrets and disclosures. Small actions, hardly noticed at the time, the thoughtless use of a spoken word, the unwanted giving of an apple… But from the one small act a chain is set and there is no going back. In reading A Change of Climate, you know something is happening but you don’t know what it is.
The two plots - the marriage and the tragedy are tightly interwoven in the writing, though there is no direct causal connection. Lives, including the lives of those yet to be born, are affected by “the event” which is unknown to the reader for a large chunk of the book.
I read that Mantel had trouble in formulating the structure of the book. You can see this in the early chapters but she managed successfully. The prose is delightful. Though Mantel is known for her Cromwell trilogy, her other books are impressive and this one in particular is my favorite.
Unfortunately I can’t go into the two plots as my review would be full of spoiler alerts. All I can add is that I highly recommend this book.
You raise up your head and you ask, "Is this where it is?"
And somebody points to you and says, "It's his"
And you say, "What's mine?" and somebody else says, "Well, what is?"
And you say, "Oh my God, am I here all alone?"
But something is happening and you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?
- Bob Dylan, 1965 show less
Alone in her school-room and her house below the tropic of Capricorn she saw her path in life, tangled, choked, thorny, like one of the cut lines that ran through the bush and melted away into the desert. Later course she wondered at herself. How could she not have seen the road ahead. Even in the early days before the wisdom conferred by the event, any trouble, any possible trouble seemed to settle around the sullen fugitive form of Enoch.
This is the show more story of a marriage and an unexpected tragic event. The setting is 1950s - 1980s Southern Africa and England. The book jumps back and forth between the African and English years and it may take a little effort in the very beginning to adjust. But any effort is well-worth it.
From early on in the marriage we sense an atmosphere of impending doom. Doom of an event that seems to be going to happen in Africa but we can’t be sure.
Ralph and Anna Eldred spend the early years of their marriage trying to “do good” in Africa. Although their relationship with their Protestant god is tenuous, the Eldreds try to use mission houses as bases for their work to improve the lives of the locals.
Their first posting is South Africa from where they are eventually expelled because of their anti-apartheid views. Not wanting to leave Africa they agree to be sent to a remote mission house in Bechuanaland (now Botswana). It’s bleak and isolated, and while I was reading the book I was reminded of Doris Lessing’s early works set in Rhodesia. Particularly with the descriptions of the landscapes and of the loneliness of isolated white women, my mind was drawn to Lessing’s The Grass is Singing, which I also highly recommend.
The book is about our actions and their consequences, good and evil, secrets and disclosures. Small actions, hardly noticed at the time, the thoughtless use of a spoken word, the unwanted giving of an apple… But from the one small act a chain is set and there is no going back. In reading A Change of Climate, you know something is happening but you don’t know what it is.
The two plots - the marriage and the tragedy are tightly interwoven in the writing, though there is no direct causal connection. Lives, including the lives of those yet to be born, are affected by “the event” which is unknown to the reader for a large chunk of the book.
I read that Mantel had trouble in formulating the structure of the book. You can see this in the early chapters but she managed successfully. The prose is delightful. Though Mantel is known for her Cromwell trilogy, her other books are impressive and this one in particular is my favorite.
Unfortunately I can’t go into the two plots as my review would be full of spoiler alerts. All I can add is that I highly recommend this book.
You raise up your head and you ask, "Is this where it is?"
And somebody points to you and says, "It's his"
And you say, "What's mine?" and somebody else says, "Well, what is?"
And you say, "Oh my God, am I here all alone?"
But something is happening and you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?
- Bob Dylan, 1965 show less
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3487288.html
Rereading the first two books, I think I must resile a bit from my complaint that we don't get enough insight into Anne Boleyn. Actually, given that she is a women liviing a dangerous life at a dangerous time, we get pretty close to her, and the disintegration of her relationship with Henry is captured tremendously well. Wolf Hall has her rise (and the fall of Cromwell and More), and Bring Up the Bodies has her fall. And I think it's pretty clear show more that she drives the ideology of the King's new approach to religion, until he decides that she can't provide what he really wants, which is a son.
I also now recognise the theme of dynastic fragility throughout all three books. When Henry came to the throne in 1509, he was the son of a usurper who had ruled for less than 25 years, his only brother was dead, one sister was married to the King of Scots and the other engaged to the future Empereor Charles V, which effectively took them and their children out of the succession. (Of course, 94 years later, the English throne did go to Henry's great-great-nephew, uniting the Scottish and English thrones.) So the need to provide heirs for dynastic and social stability was imperative, and other claimants, more closely related to the Plantagenets, were ready to move if the situation developed in their favour; meanwhile the other great families, Norfolk/Howard, Suffolk/Brandon, Seymour, all put their eligible girls in the king's line of sight.
Cromwell, having switched from Wolsey to the king at an early stage, and with no dynastic capital to spend at first, dedicates himself to maintaining the regime. But he seems to me always conscious of two things: first, that he is a smarter and better operator than the King, and second that it could all end rather rapidly; every few pages someone is burnt, hanged or beheaded. One subplot from the second book that I didn't pay enough attention to first time round is Cromwell's rescue of the eldest daughter, Mary, from potential disaster; and by the end of the trilogy it's reasonably clear that Henry is set to rehabilitate his two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, both of whom had been declared illegitimate at the point that their mothers' marriages were annulled. And of course we know that they did both inherit the throne in the end; but Mantel shows us that there was nothing inevitable about it.
I thought the third book a tremendous capstone to the other two. We know how the story is going to end; but until we get to the dramatic denouement, Cromwell continues to consolidate power around himself, and juggles the demands of Henry VIII, the other lords and the foreign powers, not to mention the women in Henry's life - the book is very much centred around managing his third and fourth marriages, and the fifth takes place at the very end (and the future sixth wife is hovering around the edges of the scene as well). There's also a great sub-plot about a long-lost Belgian daughter, and the dead Thomas Becket and the live ambassador Chapuys are fascinating characters too.
The single most powerful scene is in fact reported indirectly - when Anne of Cleves first sees Henry, who against Cromwell's advice has approached her incognito, and reacts badly. The witness is Cromwell's son Gregory (who has incidentally married Jane Seymour's sister); it's very well described. And the blow to Henry's ego because of the failure of the Anne of Cleves plan is enough to end Cromwell as well. His fall was suddent and dramatic: he was made Earl of Essex and Lord Chamberlain on 18 April, and three and a half months later he was dead. Really memorable stuff. show less
Rereading the first two books, I think I must resile a bit from my complaint that we don't get enough insight into Anne Boleyn. Actually, given that she is a women liviing a dangerous life at a dangerous time, we get pretty close to her, and the disintegration of her relationship with Henry is captured tremendously well. Wolf Hall has her rise (and the fall of Cromwell and More), and Bring Up the Bodies has her fall. And I think it's pretty clear show more that she drives the ideology of the King's new approach to religion, until he decides that she can't provide what he really wants, which is a son.
I also now recognise the theme of dynastic fragility throughout all three books. When Henry came to the throne in 1509, he was the son of a usurper who had ruled for less than 25 years, his only brother was dead, one sister was married to the King of Scots and the other engaged to the future Empereor Charles V, which effectively took them and their children out of the succession. (Of course, 94 years later, the English throne did go to Henry's great-great-nephew, uniting the Scottish and English thrones.) So the need to provide heirs for dynastic and social stability was imperative, and other claimants, more closely related to the Plantagenets, were ready to move if the situation developed in their favour; meanwhile the other great families, Norfolk/Howard, Suffolk/Brandon, Seymour, all put their eligible girls in the king's line of sight.
Cromwell, having switched from Wolsey to the king at an early stage, and with no dynastic capital to spend at first, dedicates himself to maintaining the regime. But he seems to me always conscious of two things: first, that he is a smarter and better operator than the King, and second that it could all end rather rapidly; every few pages someone is burnt, hanged or beheaded. One subplot from the second book that I didn't pay enough attention to first time round is Cromwell's rescue of the eldest daughter, Mary, from potential disaster; and by the end of the trilogy it's reasonably clear that Henry is set to rehabilitate his two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, both of whom had been declared illegitimate at the point that their mothers' marriages were annulled. And of course we know that they did both inherit the throne in the end; but Mantel shows us that there was nothing inevitable about it.
I thought the third book a tremendous capstone to the other two. We know how the story is going to end; but until we get to the dramatic denouement, Cromwell continues to consolidate power around himself, and juggles the demands of Henry VIII, the other lords and the foreign powers, not to mention the women in Henry's life - the book is very much centred around managing his third and fourth marriages, and the fifth takes place at the very end (and the future sixth wife is hovering around the edges of the scene as well). There's also a great sub-plot about a long-lost Belgian daughter, and the dead Thomas Becket and the live ambassador Chapuys are fascinating characters too.
The single most powerful scene is in fact reported indirectly - when Anne of Cleves first sees Henry, who against Cromwell's advice has approached her incognito, and reacts badly. The witness is Cromwell's son Gregory (who has incidentally married Jane Seymour's sister); it's very well described. And the blow to Henry's ego because of the failure of the Anne of Cleves plan is enough to end Cromwell as well. His fall was suddent and dramatic: he was made Earl of Essex and Lord Chamberlain on 18 April, and three and a half months later he was dead. Really memorable stuff. show less
Bring Up the Bodies: The Booker Prize-winning sequel to Wolf Hall (The Wolf Hall Trilogy) by Hilary Mantel
So these may be two stone-cold literary and popular classics of the 21st century, fully and deservedly so. In Wolf Hall, Thomas Cromwell rose from nothing to one of the most powerful men in Tudor England. Now he holds and consolidates his power having learned his lessons well. And the lesson was this: give Henry what he wants. Start giving it before Henry even knows he wants it. And what Henry wants is this: a new wife. Anne Boleyn must go, and Thomas Cromwell, intelligent, adaptable, genial show more and even liberal must ensure justice is done the way justice must be done. That he will avenge himself on old enemies is part of his elegant design. Cromwell becomes truly terrifying here, even more so than the petulant child of a king or the arrogant and presumptuous queen. We like Cromwell. We see he does good. We see he tries to minimise the damage. he is realistic and compassionate without being sentimental. It is best to be ruthless and, having chosen a course, pursue it without question or apology. And so the queen falls, and others fall with her. And what are we to make of this?
A masterpiece of historical fiction, a humane portrait of a man written off as a monster, but which does not flinch from his bloody deeds. An amazing piece of work, and presumably, one that, like the life and work of Thomas Cromwell, has yet to be concluded. show less
A masterpiece of historical fiction, a humane portrait of a man written off as a monster, but which does not flinch from his bloody deeds. An amazing piece of work, and presumably, one that, like the life and work of Thomas Cromwell, has yet to be concluded. show less
This variant of the apocryphal legend of Tobit is filled with Mantel’s wit, at once sardonic and humane. If you’ve read her memoir, Giving Up the Ghost, you’ll recognize the story’s setting, Fetherhoughton, as Hadfield, the dreary Derbyshire mill village she grew up in, imaginatively recreated. The characters, Mantel assures us, are invented, except for Fludd, who really existed—three-and-a-half centuries before the time this novel is set in. Robert Fludd was a physician, show more astrologer, and alchemist. Now, he’s taken up a task more difficult than changing lead to gold: human transformation.
He arrives soon after the bishop informs the parish priest, Father Angwin, that his ways need modernization and that he’s being sent a vicar. Fludd arrives at the door of the parochial house one night during a violent thunderstorm. I love this description of his effect on the first person to meet him, the parson’s housekeeper: “Deep within her . . . Miss Dempsey sensed a slow movement, a tiny spiral shift of matter, as if, at the very moment the curate spoke, a change had occurred: a change so minute as to baffle description, but rippling out, in its effect, to infinity.”
Liberating changes come over Father Angwin and Sister Philomena, one of the youngest nuns in the local convent. I’m not sure the change in the convent superior, Mother Perpetua, is liberating, but it’s gratifying to all who knew her.
His work in Fetherhoughton accomplished, Fludd ebbs away. Oddly, no one can remember what he looked like. show less
He arrives soon after the bishop informs the parish priest, Father Angwin, that his ways need modernization and that he’s being sent a vicar. Fludd arrives at the door of the parochial house one night during a violent thunderstorm. I love this description of his effect on the first person to meet him, the parson’s housekeeper: “Deep within her . . . Miss Dempsey sensed a slow movement, a tiny spiral shift of matter, as if, at the very moment the curate spoke, a change had occurred: a change so minute as to baffle description, but rippling out, in its effect, to infinity.”
Liberating changes come over Father Angwin and Sister Philomena, one of the youngest nuns in the local convent. I’m not sure the change in the convent superior, Mother Perpetua, is liberating, but it’s gratifying to all who knew her.
His work in Fetherhoughton accomplished, Fludd ebbs away. Oddly, no one can remember what he looked like. show less
Lists
Read These Too (1)
Big Jubilee List (1)
Backlisted (1)
Overdue Podcast (1)
Suggestions (1)
THE WAR ROOM (1)
Wishlist (1)
Favorite Series (1)
A Novel Cure (2)
Unread books (2)
Five star books (2)
United Kingdom (2)
Booker Prize (4)
Female Author (4)
. (2)
Greatest Books (1)
Favourite Books (1)
Morphy Pick! (1)
To Read (1)
Shelf 101 (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 64
- Also by
- 21
- Members
- 38,718
- Popularity
- #467
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 1,615
- ISBNs
- 690
- Languages
- 27
- Favorited
- 121
