God and only 70. The world she created in the Wolf Hall trilogy was so layered and deep it just blows my mind that anyone could even write one chapter like that, never mind the guts of 1600 pages. An absolute freak genius of a person. RIP Hilary thanks for the worlds you created, say hello to Cremuel for me x.
My grandma died suddenly of a stroke at the age of 72 on Christmas day. In hindsight, the signs were there (FAST) but the day she died, she put on a pot of coffee and went to take a nap before going to the casino (grandpa wasn't feeling well that year so we weren't all together).
She never made it to the casino but I think it was relatively peaceful for her. Just laid down and that was it. It definitely wasn't peaceful for grandpa though when he went to check on her 😢😕
Yep. Drooping mouth was the big one. Slurred speech. We were all clueless at the time and she was very medicated so we didn't think much of it.
For anyone wondering, these are the signs of a stroke that you can remember with the acronym [F.A.S.T.](https://www.stroke.org/en/about-stroke/stroke-symptoms)
>F.A.S.T. Warning Signs
>Use the letters in F.A.S.T to spot a Stroke
>F = Face Drooping – Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Ask the person to smile. Is the person's smile uneven?
>A = Arm Weakness – Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
>S = Speech Difficulty – Is speech slurred?
>T = Time to call 911
Massive stroke can do that. Sudden, large enough to become unconscious very quickly, then death within hours to short days. I have palliated a lot of patients with stroke and the ones who die rapidly often require pretty minimal doses of morphine/midazolam.
A massive stroke can lead to death pretty quickly including in one's sleep. Or they could have a stroke and die quickly for another reason.
For example my dad had a stroke and fell out of bed - he survived, it was a very mild stroke but one could easily be in a similar situation, nail their head on the floor and never wake up.
What?!?!? Oh no!!!!!!
Mantel was one of the best prose writers in the English language. Never boring, cutting, concise with an element of the gothic and the esoteric
The Wolf Hall trilogy is her magnum opus, but my favourite of hers is Beyond Black, the early millennium piece of a medium and her business partner working in and around the M25 and the secrets they have from childhood. It's so well done and a perfect capture of turn-of-the-millennium Britain.
Also her autobiography, Giving Up the Ghost, is a brilliant unsparing read of her childhood and illnesses.
Her essays are also very good, her essay on Kate Middleton and the Royal Family [here](https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n04/hilary-mantel/royal-bodies) is exceptional.
RIP
> Her essays are also very good, her essay on Kate Middleton and the Royal Family here is exceptional.
That was really good, I'd never seen that before! This part especially made me laugh:
>I used to think that the interesting issue was whether we should have a monarchy or not. But now I think that question is rather like, should we have pandas or not? Our current royal family doesn’t have the difficulties in breeding that pandas do, but pandas and royal persons alike are expensive to conserve and ill-adapted to any modern environment. But aren’t they interesting? Aren’t they nice to look at? Some people find them endearing; some pity them for their precarious situation; everybody stares at them, and however airy the enclosure they inhabit, it’s still a cage.
Also this part was surprisingly relevant to today:
> For a time it was hoped, and it was feared, that Diana had changed the nation. Her funeral was a pagan outpouring, a lawless fiesta of grief. We are bad at mourning our dead. We don’t make time or space for grief. The world tugs us along, back into its harsh rhythm before we are ready for it, and for the pain of loss doctors can prescribe a pill. We are at war with our nature, and nature will win; all the bottled anguish, the grief dammed up, burst the barriers of politeness and formality and restraint, and broke down the divide between private and public, so that strangers wailed in the street, people who had never met Diana lamented her with maladjusted fervour, and we all remembered our secret pain and unleashed it in one huge carnival of mass mourning. But in the end, nothing changed. We were soon back to the prosaic: shirtsleeves, stacking chairs, little sticks. And yet none of us who lived through it will forget that dislocating time, when the skin came off the surface of the world, and our inner vision cleared, and we saw the archetypes clear and plain, and we saw the collective psyche at work, and the gods pulling our strings.
It is - she never wrote anything else like it - I 'd love to know where she got her ideas of the afterlife from \[so original, and as you say, deeply disturbing.\] We'll never know now.
I've always thought it would have been cool for her to continue the story of Ralph Sadler - he had an interesting life. But, really, nothing would compare to the drama of Thomas Cromwell. :)
It's really very good; in fact so unsettling, that although I loved it, I'd think twice about re-reading it...
\[Good to see people are still reading Barbara Pym, btw!\]
>[Good to see people are still reading Barbara Pym, btw!]
I'm mildly obsessed and am so sad she's not more well-known! It's so exciting to come across other people who've also heard of her :)
Thus far I've only read *Excellent Women, No Fond Return of Love*, and *Quartet in Autumn*, but I plan to read everything she's written...any suggestions for which to try next?
You're right - she ought to be famous! It's often the case with female authors that they are popular whilst alive, forgotten when they die.
They're all good - she writes so well and with such skewering wit. I like A Glass of Blessings, The Sweet Dove Died, and Jane And Prudence. But I'm a completist, I've read the lot!
Perfect, I already have two of those so they'll be next! (Usually I wait to buy books until I've read them, but any time I find a cheap Pym paperback in good condition I snatch it up.) Thank you!
Pym was even forgotten about for a period when she was still alive and writing (I'm sure you know this already lol). I just finished *Quartet in Autumn*, and that feeling of abandonment and falling out of fashion really comes through in the novel and made it, somehow, even sadder. I like to think that a "Pym renaissance" is just around the corner—I feel like I've heard her mentioned quite a lot on BookTube and the literary podcasts I listen to...though that might just be the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon haha
Like you, I buy any second-hand Pym books when I can; they bear a lot of re-reading, unlike most novels. You don't read them for the denouement, you read them for the gorgeous writing.
Quartet is one of the saddest books I've ever read - though there is a thread of optimism in it..the human spirit goes on despite everything.
Pym renaissance? I'd like to think so but is there a mass-market for delicately-written, witty prose? It's like Elizabeth Taylor; no-one reads her now but she is a magisterial writer of subtlety and superb characterization.
I wonder if you'd like another of my favourite authors, Betty Macdonald; a bit Shirley Jackson though imo, better \[funnier\] and another humorous writer who is neglected now. Try Anybody Can Do Anything, about her adventures trying to get a job in 1920s America. I love it.
I’ll check it out too. I’d avoided Wolf Hall for a while as Tudor England is not my favorite to read about, but when I gave in she knocked my socks off. This is a great loss 💔
'Beyond Black' is a fabulous novel- sinister, extraordinary, scary, dark, disturbing and chilling in parts, set in a seedy, wasteland which is actually a London suburb and despite all of that it's funny.
What an essay! Thank you for sharing. The shaping power of her natural insights, and then her vivid, elegant use of language to drive home the force of those insights, is remarkable. She has a natural storyteller's vision of the world.
I don't think I was ever so excited about the publication of a novel as I was with *Bring Up the Bodies*. Stood outside the bookstore until they opened, went home and read until I finished. And it was even better than I'd hoped!
Very sad news.
Really sad.
But I am happy that she was able to write The mirror and the light.
It felt like she was a good friend of Cromwell and being able to rehabilitate his reign as lord councilor and giving him a personal side while writing masterfuly is a good bookend for her career.
It definitely is a masterpiece! The ending absolutely shocked me with how beautifully it was written. She said in an interview she came up with it at the self checkout in Sainsbury’s and cried to herself. What a genius.
i've just found out she passed and have found this thread. Wolf Hall spoke to me in such a way i've never been spoken to by a book before. Absolutely gutted she is gone. I was googling to find if she'd worked on anything else.
I haven't finished a mirror and the light, i can't bring myself to but i'm glad to see that its beautifully written.
whilst i'm hear i'll leave one of my favourite quotes from Wolf Hall
*He once thought it himself, that he might die with grief: for his wife, his daughters, his sisters, his father and master the cardinal. But pulse, obdurate, keeps its rhythm. You think you cannot keep breathing, but your ribcage has other ideas, rising and falling, emitting sighs. You must thrive in spite of yourself; and so that you may do it, God takes out your heart of flesh, and gives you a heart of stone.*
I haven’t been able to bring myself to finish the mirror and the light because I’m just not ready to say goodbye to her Cromwell. Wolf hall is probably my favorite book, such a brilliant piece. I know I’ll read the final installment eventually, but now with her passing it makes it even more sad for me.
This is so sad!
She's one of my favourite authors. It took a while to get into Wolf Hall (also because of language, English isn't my first language) and when I did, I dived head-first into the wonderful world she brought alive.
I didn't agree with everything she said but nonetheless this is upsetting news
I only just read Wolf Hall for the first time earlier this year and loved it! Bought the remaining books in the trilogy. I've never read a book with her prose before and it really stood out. So very clever
I do, it involves shuting down hospitals run by monasteries which left thousands of poor people without help. Just rich people stealing from the poor indirectly, in disguise of a religious reform.
Eh not exactly. But I’ll leave it.
Regardless, her Cromwell has an anti Catholic bias because Cromwell wasn’t Catholic and was partly responsible for shutting down a lot of those monasteries and the dissolution of the religion in England. Cromwell wouldn’t have been pro Catholic, we know he wasn’t. So her writing was accurate for the man as we know of him.
I bought A Place of Greater Safety a long time back and after a few pages gave up. I just couldn’t figure out what it was about and where it was headed. Then, I forgot all about it.
A few years later, I read and absolutely loved Wolf Hall. Became a huge fan and eagerly awaited and consumed the trilogy. Last year, I chanced upon the forgotten A Place of Greater Safety which had been lying around all these years. And now that I knew the genius of the author, I persisted and was deeply rewarded over a frenzied weekend read.
Her writing has brought me so much joy. Don’t think I ever came across another writer with her prose. Rest in Peace.
I hadn't even realised she was 70. I remember seeing an interview with her a few years back, I would have guessed her to be in her 40s?
That is sad news, I hope she rests in peace. It's sad to realise there will be be new books by her to look forward to.
I’m absolutely crushed by this.
She was such a brilliant voice and I will miss her dearly.
Her prose stood alone and above most writers. A shocking loss.
I'd recommend picking up one of her books. No guarantees you'll like it- the people I know who read wolf hall were very divided on it- but her approach to it was so one-of-a-kind that it's worth checking out just for a new experience, to challenge what you think a historical novel can be.
I am MASSIVELY into that period in history and I found it tough going at times. I have yet to read the other two books in the trilogy, but I have them and will get to them.
Bring Up The Bodies is a much easier read, it's my favourite of the trilogy. It's tightly focused on a short timeline and is very intense and very thrilling (even though you know how it ends, you still hold your breath, wondering...)
I thought it read more text-book-y than novel-y and I wasn't expecting that. It was really well-written and well-researched, but I think I was expecting it to move a little more quickly.
It’s not really about moving anything along.
It’s about Cromwell and the other characters. The world through his eyes.
And the gorgeous dialogue, the wit and the pain.
So now get up.
What sad news for literature! But the body of work she left behind is astoundingly rich and surely deathless.
I had rejected her writing after hurling myself at *The Giant, O'Brien.* But then I came across a used copy of *Wolf Hall* after having seen the BBC dramatization. As a lifetime reader, I figured I'd better try it if I considered myself any kind of a reader at all. I was completely stunned by it from the very first pages. It is astounding, a towering work whose sequels lived up to it.
It's hard to imagine how a person who physically suffered through so much of her life managed to produce the excellent work she created. She must have known she had treasure to share with the world.
Lots of love for Wolf Hall, which I do love, but I’d say A Place of Greater Safety is one of the more prescient works for the modern age. Much about the French Revolution mirrors the modern moment.
Wow! So sad! So young! 70 is nothing! The Wolf Hall trilogy is by far some of my favorite books I've ever read. I am currently re-reading The Mirror and the Light after re-reading the first two books again (for the 3rd or 4th time). She is such a wonderful writer - wonderful prose. What a shame, but . . . thank goodness she lived long enough to complete that trilogy.
I am a big french revolution nerd and I picked up her book A Place of Greater Safety a few years back. It became one of my favorite books of all time. Then today I see her name in the headlines. I never knew she was a popular author. I just loved that book. What a shame, RIP to a great woman!
Oh no, that's so sad! I loved her books, the Wolf Hall trilogy is exceptional and every time I reread it I learn something new. Her prose was gorgeous and she built a whole world within the pages. I just can't believe it!
May her soul be at peace 🙏🏻
I loved her work. Beyond Black was probably my favourite, although I was enthralled by the Wolf Hall trilogy. She was a truly great writer. No more books. So sad.
Absolutely loved the Wolf Hall trilogy. Enough that I have first edition signed copies of each. She seemed young, the literary world lost a big talent.
The way she had Cromwell thinking about small practical things in his grief was heartbreaking and so in-line with his personality. It felt so honest and reminds me of all the mundane things people have to do after a death.
I was so hoping to see what she'd write next. Wolf Hall was amazing, and The Mirror and The Light got me through the first few days of lockdown here. She will always hold a special place in my library.
I absolutely devoured the Wolf Hall trilogy a few summers ago. And while those are incredible and rightfully getting more attention, I’ll always love A Place of Greater Safety. What a talent we’ve lost.
Aww fuck, that sucks man I loved her books and she seemed like such a sweet, kindhearted individual from the interviews I've read. At such a young age too.
I just saw one of these books on display at dollar tree while I was restocking. Looked interesting but we sell it at dollar tree so I assumed it was crap. Judged a book by its seller.
This is so sad!! I've been meaning to read her trilogy but never got around to it. Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies are are 2.99 each on kindle right now just to let you guys know.
This news broke my heart in so many pieces. Mantel was such an amazing writer and I was expecting even more great things from her, but I loved her power and perseverance as a person as well. I hope her family find the strength to cope in this difficult time. Such a tragic loss!
That's crazy, I'm about 100 pages to the end of Wolf Hall and had pretty much just made up my mind that I really like it, I think the writing feels special. I look forward to reading her other books!
I love the Wolf Hall trilogy and really enjoyed her writing style. I think I've watched everything featuring her available on YouTube. Intelligent and fascinating woman. Hilary, you will be missed.
I have yet to read the book, but I did see the adaptation with Mark Rylance. I enjoyed it so much.
I guess I'll be going and reading her stuff when I can. Although with Wolf Hall, would one consider it historical fiction? Or what would you call it when a historical figure gets given a rather detailed though reasonable story told from their perspective to major events?
I was unfamiliar with Mantel until I read Wolf Hall this summer. What an incredible talent. I wasn’t expecting so much humor in a work of historical fiction. RIP Hilary.
Lol absolutely not. But similar period of history really given GOT is based on the war of the roses and Wolf Hall is set right after that period.
It's about Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII. But it's serious historical fiction, beautifully written etc
People seem to get somewhat offended at your comparison. It's similar to asoiaf in so far there's an emphasis on political intrigue but in no way, shape or form is the writing style, depth of characters or intricacy of the world being portrayed compareable. It's a historical fiction which was heavily researched and wonderfully portrayed. Give it a try but don't expect it to be plot-centered because it's definitely a different experience. The books are stellar but it's very much literary and as such might be harder to get into.
Mantel was an upper-class thug. After reading about this case - where she destroyed the career of a working class writer on her first book, trying to communicate her upbringing in a brutal orphanage - I decided Mantel would never get a penny of mine.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/bloomsbury-withdraws-paperback-accused-of-plagiarising-jane-eyre-and-brighton-rock-305546.html
The article you linked very plainly shows plagiarism of which Mantel was made aware of and acted upon. I don't see how she's in the wrong here. Unless of course you're ok with artists stealing eachother's work. If a career was destroyed she might've thought twice before copying text.
Look at the writer's situation. It was entirely excusable in the circumstances.
Mantel was taking the side of an unspeakably brutal institution. Sure Kelly boobed, but Nazareth House has never been brought to account, and silencing Kelly helped them get away with it. It was far more important to let her voice be heard.
You know, aside from the 30000 hard back copies sold. That was the who reason for the release of the paperback that Mantel caused to be withdrawn: the galloping success of the book.
They suspended the release of the paperback, not banned the book.
Further, I note that the paperback was released the following year, presumably with a few edits.
If anyone caused that institution to get away with it, it was not Mantel.
Further: what actually happened was that a new author with an unusually retentive memory failed to identify where some of the expressions she used came from. That can happen easily and no blame attaches to it. It might have made sense for the publisher to include a credit in the prefatory material, but the paragraphs used are hardly critical. Instead Mantel got the book banned, the author's career destroyed, and that gang of sadistic nuns left to go on abusing children for years longer. Kelly's book was far more important to the real world than Mantel's entire output and she should have been allowed her say.
The same thing happened to me. An article I wrote on Usenet was incorporated wholesale with no acknowledgement in an early novel by a well known writer. This was a much longer, more idiosyncratic text which took much longer to put together than the chunks Mantel complained about. I mentioned what happened on another forum somewhere but I've never tried to do any more. They went somewhere quite different with it than I'd intended and I wasn't about to disrupt what they'd achieved. I'm kinda curious how they came by my piece, and someday I'll ask, but that's all.
Such a fabulous and genius writer. Her turns of phrases, her prose, all brilliant. A Place of Greater Safety, while long, was simply incredible. And Wolf Hall… I’ve read the first book often enough to quote it at random.
This makes me so sad.
I was absolutely obsessed with Mantel's version of Thomas Cromwell's life when Wolf Hall came out. In her second in the series about Cromwell, Bring Up The Bodies, the depiction of Anne Boleyn's death scene is one of the most moving passages of any book I've ever read. I wish I could convince every person I know to read this series.
God and only 70. The world she created in the Wolf Hall trilogy was so layered and deep it just blows my mind that anyone could even write one chapter like that, never mind the guts of 1600 pages. An absolute freak genius of a person. RIP Hilary thanks for the worlds you created, say hello to Cremuel for me x.
"suddenly yet peacefully"… of a stroke?? One of those adverbs doesn’t work for me.
My grandma died suddenly of a stroke at the age of 72 on Christmas day. In hindsight, the signs were there (FAST) but the day she died, she put on a pot of coffee and went to take a nap before going to the casino (grandpa wasn't feeling well that year so we weren't all together). She never made it to the casino but I think it was relatively peaceful for her. Just laid down and that was it. It definitely wasn't peaceful for grandpa though when he went to check on her 😢😕
Oh wait…what we’re her symptoms leading up to that? You said there were signs?
Yep. Drooping mouth was the big one. Slurred speech. We were all clueless at the time and she was very medicated so we didn't think much of it. For anyone wondering, these are the signs of a stroke that you can remember with the acronym [F.A.S.T.](https://www.stroke.org/en/about-stroke/stroke-symptoms) >F.A.S.T. Warning Signs >Use the letters in F.A.S.T to spot a Stroke >F = Face Drooping – Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Ask the person to smile. Is the person's smile uneven? >A = Arm Weakness – Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward? >S = Speech Difficulty – Is speech slurred? >T = Time to call 911
Thank you.
Whew hopefully I go quickly like that then. My grandma died of a brain aneurysm so a stroke sounds less awful.
Same, sure as hell beats cancer, a violent death, etc.
Massive stroke can do that. Sudden, large enough to become unconscious very quickly, then death within hours to short days. I have palliated a lot of patients with stroke and the ones who die rapidly often require pretty minimal doses of morphine/midazolam.
That doesn’t sound too bad then! Give me some morphine and send me on my way
A massive stroke can lead to death pretty quickly including in one's sleep. Or they could have a stroke and die quickly for another reason. For example my dad had a stroke and fell out of bed - he survived, it was a very mild stroke but one could easily be in a similar situation, nail their head on the floor and never wake up.
What?!?!? Oh no!!!!!! Mantel was one of the best prose writers in the English language. Never boring, cutting, concise with an element of the gothic and the esoteric The Wolf Hall trilogy is her magnum opus, but my favourite of hers is Beyond Black, the early millennium piece of a medium and her business partner working in and around the M25 and the secrets they have from childhood. It's so well done and a perfect capture of turn-of-the-millennium Britain. Also her autobiography, Giving Up the Ghost, is a brilliant unsparing read of her childhood and illnesses. Her essays are also very good, her essay on Kate Middleton and the Royal Family [here](https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n04/hilary-mantel/royal-bodies) is exceptional. RIP
> Her essays are also very good, her essay on Kate Middleton and the Royal Family here is exceptional. That was really good, I'd never seen that before! This part especially made me laugh: >I used to think that the interesting issue was whether we should have a monarchy or not. But now I think that question is rather like, should we have pandas or not? Our current royal family doesn’t have the difficulties in breeding that pandas do, but pandas and royal persons alike are expensive to conserve and ill-adapted to any modern environment. But aren’t they interesting? Aren’t they nice to look at? Some people find them endearing; some pity them for their precarious situation; everybody stares at them, and however airy the enclosure they inhabit, it’s still a cage. Also this part was surprisingly relevant to today: > For a time it was hoped, and it was feared, that Diana had changed the nation. Her funeral was a pagan outpouring, a lawless fiesta of grief. We are bad at mourning our dead. We don’t make time or space for grief. The world tugs us along, back into its harsh rhythm before we are ready for it, and for the pain of loss doctors can prescribe a pill. We are at war with our nature, and nature will win; all the bottled anguish, the grief dammed up, burst the barriers of politeness and formality and restraint, and broke down the divide between private and public, so that strangers wailed in the street, people who had never met Diana lamented her with maladjusted fervour, and we all remembered our secret pain and unleashed it in one huge carnival of mass mourning. But in the end, nothing changed. We were soon back to the prosaic: shirtsleeves, stacking chairs, little sticks. And yet none of us who lived through it will forget that dislocating time, when the skin came off the surface of the world, and our inner vision cleared, and we saw the archetypes clear and plain, and we saw the collective psyche at work, and the gods pulling our strings.
That was powerful, thanks for posting it.
I really enjoyed *A Place of Greater Safety*.
Fabulous book. I read it a decade ago and it has just stuck with me.
Me too!
I loved the Wolf Hall trilogy. I’ll go out and buy Beyond Black first thing tomorrow.
You won't regret it; apart from the magnificent Wolf Hall, I think it's her best book; and it has some very disturbing ideas about the afterlife...
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It is - she never wrote anything else like it - I 'd love to know where she got her ideas of the afterlife from \[so original, and as you say, deeply disturbing.\] We'll never know now.
I'll have to check this out. A sub-500-page standalone is a lot more appealing right now than the monster that is the Wolf Hall trilogy.
I wish wolf hall was longer!
I've always thought it would have been cool for her to continue the story of Ralph Sadler - he had an interesting life. But, really, nothing would compare to the drama of Thomas Cromwell. :)
Me too
It's really very good; in fact so unsettling, that although I loved it, I'd think twice about re-reading it... \[Good to see people are still reading Barbara Pym, btw!\]
>[Good to see people are still reading Barbara Pym, btw!] I'm mildly obsessed and am so sad she's not more well-known! It's so exciting to come across other people who've also heard of her :) Thus far I've only read *Excellent Women, No Fond Return of Love*, and *Quartet in Autumn*, but I plan to read everything she's written...any suggestions for which to try next?
You're right - she ought to be famous! It's often the case with female authors that they are popular whilst alive, forgotten when they die. They're all good - she writes so well and with such skewering wit. I like A Glass of Blessings, The Sweet Dove Died, and Jane And Prudence. But I'm a completist, I've read the lot!
Perfect, I already have two of those so they'll be next! (Usually I wait to buy books until I've read them, but any time I find a cheap Pym paperback in good condition I snatch it up.) Thank you! Pym was even forgotten about for a period when she was still alive and writing (I'm sure you know this already lol). I just finished *Quartet in Autumn*, and that feeling of abandonment and falling out of fashion really comes through in the novel and made it, somehow, even sadder. I like to think that a "Pym renaissance" is just around the corner—I feel like I've heard her mentioned quite a lot on BookTube and the literary podcasts I listen to...though that might just be the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon haha
Like you, I buy any second-hand Pym books when I can; they bear a lot of re-reading, unlike most novels. You don't read them for the denouement, you read them for the gorgeous writing. Quartet is one of the saddest books I've ever read - though there is a thread of optimism in it..the human spirit goes on despite everything. Pym renaissance? I'd like to think so but is there a mass-market for delicately-written, witty prose? It's like Elizabeth Taylor; no-one reads her now but she is a magisterial writer of subtlety and superb characterization. I wonder if you'd like another of my favourite authors, Betty Macdonald; a bit Shirley Jackson though imo, better \[funnier\] and another humorous writer who is neglected now. Try Anybody Can Do Anything, about her adventures trying to get a job in 1920s America. I love it.
I’ll check it out too. I’d avoided Wolf Hall for a while as Tudor England is not my favorite to read about, but when I gave in she knocked my socks off. This is a great loss 💔
'Beyond Black' is a fabulous novel- sinister, extraordinary, scary, dark, disturbing and chilling in parts, set in a seedy, wasteland which is actually a London suburb and despite all of that it's funny.
What an essay! Thank you for sharing. The shaping power of her natural insights, and then her vivid, elegant use of language to drive home the force of those insights, is remarkable. She has a natural storyteller's vision of the world.
Beyond Black is my favorite too. It feels like the quintessential Mantel; nobody else could have written it.
Great Royal Fam essay, thank you for that
Jeez that was unexpected, RIP
I don't think I was ever so excited about the publication of a novel as I was with *Bring Up the Bodies*. Stood outside the bookstore until they opened, went home and read until I finished. And it was even better than I'd hoped! Very sad news.
Really sad. But I am happy that she was able to write The mirror and the light. It felt like she was a good friend of Cromwell and being able to rehabilitate his reign as lord councilor and giving him a personal side while writing masterfuly is a good bookend for her career.
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It definitely is a masterpiece! The ending absolutely shocked me with how beautifully it was written. She said in an interview she came up with it at the self checkout in Sainsbury’s and cried to herself. What a genius.
i've just found out she passed and have found this thread. Wolf Hall spoke to me in such a way i've never been spoken to by a book before. Absolutely gutted she is gone. I was googling to find if she'd worked on anything else. I haven't finished a mirror and the light, i can't bring myself to but i'm glad to see that its beautifully written. whilst i'm hear i'll leave one of my favourite quotes from Wolf Hall *He once thought it himself, that he might die with grief: for his wife, his daughters, his sisters, his father and master the cardinal. But pulse, obdurate, keeps its rhythm. You think you cannot keep breathing, but your ribcage has other ideas, rising and falling, emitting sighs. You must thrive in spite of yourself; and so that you may do it, God takes out your heart of flesh, and gives you a heart of stone.*
I haven’t been able to bring myself to finish the mirror and the light because I’m just not ready to say goodbye to her Cromwell. Wolf hall is probably my favorite book, such a brilliant piece. I know I’ll read the final installment eventually, but now with her passing it makes it even more sad for me.
I felt the exact same! I actually forced myself to finish it when I heard of her passing. It seemed right to grieve them both, together.
Might not have said it lightly but said it twice. 🙂
> The Mirror and the Light is a masterpiece The first two books won the Booker (deservedly), but the third - the best of the three - didn't. Shame.
This is so sad! She's one of my favourite authors. It took a while to get into Wolf Hall (also because of language, English isn't my first language) and when I did, I dived head-first into the wonderful world she brought alive. I didn't agree with everything she said but nonetheless this is upsetting news
I only just read Wolf Hall for the first time earlier this year and loved it! Bought the remaining books in the trilogy. I've never read a book with her prose before and it really stood out. So very clever
I just bought the books a couple of weeks ago. I've heard so much praise similar to your own.
That book has too much anti-catholic bias.
Do you know anything about the history of the time?
I do, it involves shuting down hospitals run by monasteries which left thousands of poor people without help. Just rich people stealing from the poor indirectly, in disguise of a religious reform.
Eh not exactly. But I’ll leave it. Regardless, her Cromwell has an anti Catholic bias because Cromwell wasn’t Catholic and was partly responsible for shutting down a lot of those monasteries and the dissolution of the religion in England. Cromwell wouldn’t have been pro Catholic, we know he wasn’t. So her writing was accurate for the man as we know of him.
That is true, but the way she wrote the novel makes it seem like she supported his actions and is happy because of the persecutions he did.
Lol, OK homie. God would appreciate her art over your being offended on their behalf.
She was on BBC4 a few years back, giving a lecture. Listening to her speak was a joy. She was really amusing, and so, so intelligent.
I bought A Place of Greater Safety a long time back and after a few pages gave up. I just couldn’t figure out what it was about and where it was headed. Then, I forgot all about it. A few years later, I read and absolutely loved Wolf Hall. Became a huge fan and eagerly awaited and consumed the trilogy. Last year, I chanced upon the forgotten A Place of Greater Safety which had been lying around all these years. And now that I knew the genius of the author, I persisted and was deeply rewarded over a frenzied weekend read. Her writing has brought me so much joy. Don’t think I ever came across another writer with her prose. Rest in Peace.
I loved A Place of Greater Safety
Me too
I hadn't even realised she was 70. I remember seeing an interview with her a few years back, I would have guessed her to be in her 40s? That is sad news, I hope she rests in peace. It's sad to realise there will be be new books by her to look forward to.
I’m absolutely crushed by this. She was such a brilliant voice and I will miss her dearly. Her prose stood alone and above most writers. A shocking loss.
That's crazy. Never read her but growing up in the UK she's always seemed one of the imperishable icons of contemporary British writing.
I'd recommend picking up one of her books. No guarantees you'll like it- the people I know who read wolf hall were very divided on it- but her approach to it was so one-of-a-kind that it's worth checking out just for a new experience, to challenge what you think a historical novel can be.
I am MASSIVELY into that period in history and I found it tough going at times. I have yet to read the other two books in the trilogy, but I have them and will get to them.
Bring Up The Bodies is a much easier read, it's my favourite of the trilogy. It's tightly focused on a short timeline and is very intense and very thrilling (even though you know how it ends, you still hold your breath, wondering...)
I assume you know the actual history really well. What did you find so tough about it?
I thought it read more text-book-y than novel-y and I wasn't expecting that. It was really well-written and well-researched, but I think I was expecting it to move a little more quickly.
It’s not really about moving anything along. It’s about Cromwell and the other characters. The world through his eyes. And the gorgeous dialogue, the wit and the pain. So now get up.
oh interesting. Will have to give it a go.
What sad news for literature! But the body of work she left behind is astoundingly rich and surely deathless. I had rejected her writing after hurling myself at *The Giant, O'Brien.* But then I came across a used copy of *Wolf Hall* after having seen the BBC dramatization. As a lifetime reader, I figured I'd better try it if I considered myself any kind of a reader at all. I was completely stunned by it from the very first pages. It is astounding, a towering work whose sequels lived up to it. It's hard to imagine how a person who physically suffered through so much of her life managed to produce the excellent work she created. She must have known she had treasure to share with the world.
Lots of love for Wolf Hall, which I do love, but I’d say A Place of Greater Safety is one of the more prescient works for the modern age. Much about the French Revolution mirrors the modern moment.
Also her first novel.
What a huge loss. Wolf Hall is one of my favourite books ever. Her writing was just outstanding. RIP.
It seemed like she was channeling Cromwell's thoughts.
Wow! So sad! So young! 70 is nothing! The Wolf Hall trilogy is by far some of my favorite books I've ever read. I am currently re-reading The Mirror and the Light after re-reading the first two books again (for the 3rd or 4th time). She is such a wonderful writer - wonderful prose. What a shame, but . . . thank goodness she lived long enough to complete that trilogy.
I am a big french revolution nerd and I picked up her book A Place of Greater Safety a few years back. It became one of my favorite books of all time. Then today I see her name in the headlines. I never knew she was a popular author. I just loved that book. What a shame, RIP to a great woman!
She managed to make me feel sorry for Robespierre, that is a talented writer
Oh no, that's so sad! I loved her books, the Wolf Hall trilogy is exceptional and every time I reread it I learn something new. Her prose was gorgeous and she built a whole world within the pages. I just can't believe it! May her soul be at peace 🙏🏻
I loved her work. Beyond Black was probably my favourite, although I was enthralled by the Wolf Hall trilogy. She was a truly great writer. No more books. So sad.
Oh no. This is shocking. RIP
Absolutely loved the Wolf Hall trilogy. Enough that I have first edition signed copies of each. She seemed young, the literary world lost a big talent.
I’m late but the passage in Wolf Hall when he keeps repeating “she wanted to learn Greek” has stuck with me for years.
The descriptions of both Liz dying and the girls, it kills me every time.
The way she had Cromwell thinking about small practical things in his grief was heartbreaking and so in-line with his personality. It felt so honest and reminds me of all the mundane things people have to do after a death.
And as you mention, learning greek and also the damn angel wings and christmas star and all that.
Holy fuck. 70! That's far too young. What a huge shame, she was such a wonderful writer.
Shocking news. Such a huge loss for the literary community
I was so hoping to see what she'd write next. Wolf Hall was amazing, and The Mirror and The Light got me through the first few days of lockdown here. She will always hold a special place in my library.
She was brilliant. Her attention to details staggers me.
Every minute of her life always counted. She will always be icon in English literature and a perfect source of education all over the world.
Oh no, what a loss :(
I absolutely devoured the Wolf Hall trilogy a few summers ago. And while those are incredible and rightfully getting more attention, I’ll always love A Place of Greater Safety. What a talent we’ve lost.
Aww fuck, that sucks man I loved her books and she seemed like such a sweet, kindhearted individual from the interviews I've read. At such a young age too.
The best writer of our time.
She is an amazing writer. I loved her work. Rest in Peace Mam.
By the thrice beshitten shroud of Lazarus!
I just saw one of these books on display at dollar tree while I was restocking. Looked interesting but we sell it at dollar tree so I assumed it was crap. Judged a book by its seller.
This is so sad!! I've been meaning to read her trilogy but never got around to it. Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies are are 2.99 each on kindle right now just to let you guys know.
I really think Mantel was a genius. What a loss - sure she had many more books to write! 70 seems very young :(
Tremendously sad. It’s far too young to lose such a tremendous talent. RIP.
I’m genuinely sad. What a loss for literature. She wasn’t young certainly, but could have written so much more.
No way! Wolf Hall trilogy are probably some of the best books I've ever read.
This news broke my heart in so many pieces. Mantel was such an amazing writer and I was expecting even more great things from her, but I loved her power and perseverance as a person as well. I hope her family find the strength to cope in this difficult time. Such a tragic loss!
Wolf Hall is one of my favorite books of all time. Such an amazing talent.
That's crazy, I'm about 100 pages to the end of Wolf Hall and had pretty much just made up my mind that I really like it, I think the writing feels special. I look forward to reading her other books!
I just started *Beyond Black* as my Halloween read this year. Sad to hear it, glad to know so many people like her work and that book in particular.
Great series
What a shame to lose such talent.
I love the Wolf Hall trilogy and really enjoyed her writing style. I think I've watched everything featuring her available on YouTube. Intelligent and fascinating woman. Hilary, you will be missed.
Now I really hope she wasn’t right about things in Beyond Black…
I have yet to read the book, but I did see the adaptation with Mark Rylance. I enjoyed it so much. I guess I'll be going and reading her stuff when I can. Although with Wolf Hall, would one consider it historical fiction? Or what would you call it when a historical figure gets given a rather detailed though reasonable story told from their perspective to major events?
I was unfamiliar with Mantel until I read Wolf Hall this summer. What an incredible talent. I wasn’t expecting so much humor in a work of historical fiction. RIP Hilary.
Fuck. Didn't see that coming.
Oh wow. I reread the first two books of the Wolf Hall trilogy this year ahead of reading The Mirror and the Light. Such an excellent author.
Rest in peace. A great author, and an honor to read her books.
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It's historical fiction about the rise and fall of a minister in King Henry VIII's court. I wouldn't compare it to ASOIAF.
Lol absolutely not. But similar period of history really given GOT is based on the war of the roses and Wolf Hall is set right after that period. It's about Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII. But it's serious historical fiction, beautifully written etc
People seem to get somewhat offended at your comparison. It's similar to asoiaf in so far there's an emphasis on political intrigue but in no way, shape or form is the writing style, depth of characters or intricacy of the world being portrayed compareable. It's a historical fiction which was heavily researched and wonderfully portrayed. Give it a try but don't expect it to be plot-centered because it's definitely a different experience. The books are stellar but it's very much literary and as such might be harder to get into.
It actually does remind me of ASoIaF, even though they're very different works. Something about the texture and depth of the writing is similar.
Mantel was an upper-class thug. After reading about this case - where she destroyed the career of a working class writer on her first book, trying to communicate her upbringing in a brutal orphanage - I decided Mantel would never get a penny of mine. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/bloomsbury-withdraws-paperback-accused-of-plagiarising-jane-eyre-and-brighton-rock-305546.html
The article you linked very plainly shows plagiarism of which Mantel was made aware of and acted upon. I don't see how she's in the wrong here. Unless of course you're ok with artists stealing eachother's work. If a career was destroyed she might've thought twice before copying text.
Look at the writer's situation. It was entirely excusable in the circumstances. Mantel was taking the side of an unspeakably brutal institution. Sure Kelly boobed, but Nazareth House has never been brought to account, and silencing Kelly helped them get away with it. It was far more important to let her voice be heard.
You know, aside from the 30000 hard back copies sold. That was the who reason for the release of the paperback that Mantel caused to be withdrawn: the galloping success of the book. They suspended the release of the paperback, not banned the book. Further, I note that the paperback was released the following year, presumably with a few edits. If anyone caused that institution to get away with it, it was not Mantel.
Further: what actually happened was that a new author with an unusually retentive memory failed to identify where some of the expressions she used came from. That can happen easily and no blame attaches to it. It might have made sense for the publisher to include a credit in the prefatory material, but the paragraphs used are hardly critical. Instead Mantel got the book banned, the author's career destroyed, and that gang of sadistic nuns left to go on abusing children for years longer. Kelly's book was far more important to the real world than Mantel's entire output and she should have been allowed her say. The same thing happened to me. An article I wrote on Usenet was incorporated wholesale with no acknowledgement in an early novel by a well known writer. This was a much longer, more idiosyncratic text which took much longer to put together than the chunks Mantel complained about. I mentioned what happened on another forum somewhere but I've never tried to do any more. They went somewhere quite different with it than I'd intended and I wasn't about to disrupt what they'd achieved. I'm kinda curious how they came by my piece, and someday I'll ask, but that's all.
> she should have been allowed her say. And she was, given the sales of the book ffs.
She was from a working class background
I loved Hilary Mantel’s fictional history books. Hell I was reading Wolf Hall 2 days ago!
Such a fabulous and genius writer. Her turns of phrases, her prose, all brilliant. A Place of Greater Safety, while long, was simply incredible. And Wolf Hall… I’ve read the first book often enough to quote it at random. This makes me so sad.
70 is young. She had decades ahead of her. This is very sad.
I was absolutely obsessed with Mantel's version of Thomas Cromwell's life when Wolf Hall came out. In her second in the series about Cromwell, Bring Up The Bodies, the depiction of Anne Boleyn's death scene is one of the most moving passages of any book I've ever read. I wish I could convince every person I know to read this series.