Hilary Mantel (1952–2022)

Author of Wolf Hall

63+ Works 33,541 Members 1,480 Reviews 111 Favorited

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

Includes the names: Mantel H., Hilary Mantel, Hilary Mantle, Hilary Mantel, HILARY MANTEL, Hillary Mantel, by Hilary Mantel, Hilary Mary Mantel, הילרי מנטל, Dame Hilary (DBR FRSL) Mantel, , Hilary [Verfasser] Trabant Mantel, Christiane [Übersetzer]

Image credit: Hilary Mantel - Photo by Sarah Lee

Series

Wolf Hall Trilogy

Every Day Is Mother's Day

Een veiliger oord

Révolution

Works by Hilary Mantel

Popular Recent

Wolf Hall (2009) 13,584 copies

Bring Up the Bodies (2012) 6,989 copies

The Mirror & the Light (2020) 2,820 copies

A Place of Greater Safety (1992) 1,847 copies

Beyond Black (2005) 1,810 copies

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories (2014) 1,012 copies

Fludd (1989) 929 copies

Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoir (2003) 756 copies

An Experiment in Love (1995) 561 copies

The Giant, O'Brien (1998) 559 copies

A Change of Climate (1994) 535 copies

Eight Months on Ghazzah Street (1988) 498 copies

Every Day Is Mother's Day (1985) 348 copies

Vacant Possession (1986) 321 copies

Mantel Pieces (2020) 248 copies

Learning to Talk (2003) 181 copies

A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing (2023) 86 copies

Freedom: A Place of Greater Safety, Part 1 (1993) 66 copies

Wolf Hall [and] Bring Up the Bodies (2012) 60 copies

Wolf Hall & Bring Up the Bodies: The Stage Adaptation (2014) 50 copies

Wolf Hall Trilogy (2020) 46 copies

Brotherhood: A Place of Greater Safety, Part 3 (2014) 38 copies

Equality: A Place of Greater Safety, Part 2 (1993) 37 copies

Ink in the Blood: A Hospital Diary (2010) 28 copies

The World of Wolf Hall: A Reading Guide to Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies (2019) 18 copies

Holbein's Sir Thomas More (2018) 18 copies

The Wolf Hall Picture Book (2022) 15 copies

How Shall I Know You? [short story] (2014) 9 copies

The School of English (2015) 9 copies

Goed leren praten (2023) 7 copies

Vorstelijke personages en andere geschriften (2021) 6 copies

Schrijver zijn (2024) 6 copies

Révolution 1 - L'idéal (2016) 6 copies

Hilary Mantel Collection (Six book set) (2013) 4 copies

Révolution 2 - Les désordres (French Edition) (2016) 3 copies

Bring up the bodies 2 copies

Three-Book Edition : A Place of Greater Safety; Beyond Black; The Giant O’Brien (2013) 2 copies

Bring up the Bodies 2 copies

Voorbij het zwart (2023) 1 copy

Kurtlar Hanedanı 1 copy

Sprechen lernen: Erzählungen 1 copy

Hilary Mantel Collection 1 copy

Ölüleri Getirin 1 copy

La storia segreta della Rivoluzione francese. Volume unico 1 copy

A Memoir of my Former:A Life in Writing 1 copy

Mantel Hilary 1 copy

Lustro i światło (2020) 1 copy

The woman who died of Robespierre (2003) 1 copy

The Hilary Mantel Collection 1 copy

Mens vs. natuur ; De moord op Margaret Thatcher 1 copy

ARTICLE: My Writing Day [Hilary Mantel] 1 copy

HILARY MANTEL: WHY I BECAME AN HISTORICAL NOVELIST 1 copy

ARTICLE: H MANTEL-WHY I BECAME AN HISTORIAN 1 copy

Bring Up the Bodies: The Stage Adaptation 1 copy

Wolf Hall: The Stage Adaptation 1 copy

Wintertrip & Iemands kind 1 copy

'Royal Bodies' in LRB 35/4, 21 Feb 2013 1 copy

'The Magic of Keith Thomas' in NYRB 59/10, 7 June 2012 [review of new ed. of Thomas' 'Religion and the Decline of… 1 copy

The Heart Fails without Warning 1 copy

Cinderella in Autumn 1 copy

'The Crowe is White' in LRB 31/18, 21 Sept 2009 [review of Eamon Duffy's 'Fires of Faith: Catholic England under Mary… 1 copy

The Right to Life 1 copy

ANA BOLENA 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) — Introduction, some editions — 8,866 copies

Religion and the Decline of Magic : Studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England (1971) — Introduction, some editions — 1,377 copies

Angel (1957) — Introduction, some editions — 878 copies

Marking Time (1991) — Afterword, some editions — 826 copies

Faces in the Water (1961) — Introduction, some editions — 585 copies

The Fox in the Attic (1961) — Introduction, some editions — 448 copies

The Tortoise and the Hare (1954) — Introduction, some editions — 429 copies

The Long View (1956) — Introduction, some editions — 265 copies

The Wooden Shepherdess (1973) — Introduction, some editions — 188 copies

Odd Girl Out (1972) — Introduction, some editions — 174 copies

Granta 63: Beasts (1998) — Contributor — 132 copies

Granta 56: What Happened to Us? (1996) — Contributor — 125 copies

Best European Fiction 2011 (2010) — Contributor — 109 copies

Wolf Hall [2015 mini series] (2015) — Original book — 94 copies

Literary Genius: 25 Classic Writers Who Define English & American Literature (2007) — Contributor — 90 copies

Granta 147: 40th Birthday Special (2019) — Contributor — 58 copies

Writers on writing (2002) — Contributor — 29 copies

The Best British Short Stories 2011 (2011) — Contributor — 27 copies

TLS Short Stories (2003) — Contributor — 12 copies

The Best British Short Stories 2015 (2015) — Contributor — 12 copies

Great fairytales, part 1, Wicked parents (2009) — Afterword — 2 copies

Tagged

16th century (448) 18th century (165) 20th century (236) 21st century (191) adventure (345) Anne Boleyn (400) audiobook (189) Booker Prize (401) Booker Prize Winner (170) British (501) British literature (325) classic (349) classics (389) Cromwell (218) ebook (347) England (1,224) English (235) English literature (329) fiction (5,541) France (363) French Revolution (642) Henry VIII (840) historical (677) historical fiction (3,351) historical novel (263) history (825) Kindle (387) literature (549) non-fiction (203) novel (945) read (443) religion (354) romance (185) short stories (274) Thomas Cromwell (715) to-read (3,200) Tudor (331) Tudors (445) UK (189) unread (244)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Mantel, Hilary
Legal name: Mantel, Hilary Mary Thompson
Birthdate: 1952-07-06
Date of death: 2022-09-22
Gender: female
Nationality: UK
Birthplace: Glossop, Derbyshire, England, UK
Place of death: Exeter, Devon, England
Cause of death: stroke
Places of residence: Hadfield, Derbyshire, England, UK
Romiley, Greater Manchester, England, UK
London, England, UK
Botswana
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Surrey, England, UK (show all 7)
Budleigh Salterton, Devon, England, UK
Education: Harrytown Convent
London School of Economics (law)
University of Sheffield (LL.B|1973)
Occupations: short story writer
film critic
social worker
novelist
essayist
Relationships: McEwen, Gerald (husband)
Organizations: The Spectator
Awards and honors: Royal Society of Literature (fellow | 1990)
Order of the British Empire (CBE | 2006 | DBE | 2014)
Booker Prize (2009 | 2012)
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)
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.

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

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Would have been 5 stars if it weren't for the treacherous writing style.

Flagged

bigstrongcoolguy | 654 other reviews | Jun 5, 2024 |

A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing by Hilary Mantel

30. A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing by Hilary Mantel
readers: Anne Enright, Aurora Dawson Hunte, Ben Miles, Bill Hamilton, Jane Wymark, Lydia Leonard, Nicholas Pearson, and Sarah Waters
OPD: 2023
format: 16:21 audible audiobook (432 pages in hardcover)
acquired: April 16 listened: Apr 16 – May 15
rating: 4½
genre/style: essays theme: random audio
locations: England, Saudi Arabia,
about the author: 1952-2022. A British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. She was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, and raised in the area.

I was a little worried about listening a bunch of essays I might not be interested in, but this turns out to be captivating stuff. These are a bit random, various things she wrote and published in different mediums through her life. The most mundane are probably her movie reviews, especially when I haven't seen the movie. But then her movie reviews are quite fun. Mantel on Robocop can be found within! Imagine that. It's better than you just imagined. She also reviews Wilt Stillman's Metropolitan, the first of three Stillman movies that I adore, and these are a little obscure.

But, to the point, there are simply some lightning essays in here. Many are about the Tudors and the [Wolf Hall] trilogy. Some about her other books, especially [A Place of Greater Safety], where she talks about the missing historical pieces in the French Revolution. Gaps in the record. Some are on overlooked women authors, really great stuff. She was an excellent writer, able to make her essays playful in a writerly way. She loved her sentences. Often she would write be very humbly, but with such sharp wit. Other times she comes across so starkly assured and confident, as if presenting proclamations from on high. I found that a little strange. But overall, I loved the collection and its richness. I really want to read [A Place of Greater Safety] now.

2024
https://www.librarything.com/topic/360386#8544876… (more)

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dchaikin | 3 other reviews | May 25, 2024 |

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Yet another basically unreadable Booker winner.

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Abcdarian | 654 other reviews | May 18, 2024 |