Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mary Thompson was born on 6 July 1952 in Glossop, Derbyshire,{{cite news |title=Obituary: Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize-winner celebrated for the 'Wolf Hall' trilogy |url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/book-news/obituary-hilary-mantel-booker-prize-winner-celebrated-for-wolf-hall-trilogy-42014820.html |access-date=29 September 2022 |work=Irish Independent |date=25 September 2022 |language=en}} the eldest of three children, with two younger brothers, and raised as a Roman Catholic in the mill village of Hadfield, where she attended St. Charles Roman Catholic Primary School.

Her parents, Margaret (née Foster) and Henry Thompson (a clerk), were both Catholics of Irish descent, born in England. When Mantel was seven, her mother's lover, Jack Mantel, moved in with the family. He shared a bedroom with her mother, while her father moved to another room. Four years later, when she was eleven, the family, except for her father, moved to Romiley, Cheshire, to escape the local gossip. She never saw her father again.Obituary in The Times (London); reprinted in The Dominion Post (New Zealand), 27 September 2022, page 24

When the family relocated, Jack Mantel (1932–1995){{cite news |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/17/hilary-mantel-author-author |title=Hilary Mantel remembers her stepfather's books|work=The Guardian |access-date=17 October 2012|location=London|date=17 April 2010}}{{cite magazine |first=Larissa |last=MacFarquhar |author-link=Larissa MacFarquhar |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/15/121015fa_fact_macfarquhar?currentPage=all |title=How Hilary Mantel Revitalized Historical Fiction|magazine=The New Yorker |date=15 October 2012|access-date=17 October 2012}} became her unofficial stepfather, and she legally took his surname.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/7345476/Hilary-Mantel-interview.html|title=Hilary Mantel Interview|work=The Daily Telegraph|last=Murphy|first=Anna|date=1 March 2010|access-date=2 January 2011|location=London}}{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/books/hilary-mantel-dead.html~:text=After%20her%20mother%20left%20her,afford%20to%20finish%20her%20training | title=Hilary Mantel, Prize-Winning Author of Historical Fiction, Dies at 70 | newspaper=The New York Times | date=23 September 2022 | last1=Marshall | first1=Alex | last2=Alter | first2=Alexandra }} She attended Harrytown Convent school in Romiley, Cheshire.

In 1970, she began studies at the London School of Economics to read law. She transferred to the University of Sheffield and graduated as a Bachelor of JurisprudenceNote: Sheffield University Law School established the 2-year "B.Jur" degree in 1970. It was designed to allow students who had successfully completed their first year in other faculties to change direction and study law. The B.Jur syllabus was a "stripped-down" curriculum where the core subjects were taught, enabling graduates to proceed to further professional examinations as though they had completed a 3-year LLB degree course. Mantel was in only the second-ever cohort of B.Jur students. in 1973. After university, Mantel worked in the social work department of a geriatric hospital and then as a sales assistant at Kendals department store in Manchester.{{cite web | url=https://thegentlewoman.co.uk/library/hilary-mantel_4 | title=Hilary Mantel }}

In 1973, she married Gerald McEwen, a geologist. In 1974, she began writing a novel about the French Revolution, but was unable to find a publisher (it was eventually released as A Place of Greater Safety in 1992). In 1977 Mantel moved with her husband to Botswana, where they lived for the next five years.{{Cite web |url=http://www.themanbookerprize.com/people/hilary-mantel |title=Hilary Mantel |publisher=The Man Booker Prize |access-date=14 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141128125009/http://www.themanbookerprize.com/people/hilary-mantel |archive-date=28 November 2014 |url-status=dead }} Later, they spent four years in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.{{cite web |last1=O'Reilly |first1=Sally |last2=Towheed |first2=Shafquat |title=A little literary tourism: in search of Hilary Mantel |url=https://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/english/a-little-literary-tourism-in-search-of-hilary-mantel/ |website=Department of English and Creative Writing |publisher=The Open University |access-date=26 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926184517/https://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/english/a-little-literary-tourism-in-search-of-hilary-mantel/ |archive-date=26 September 2022 |date=March 4, 2020}} She later said that leaving Jeddah felt like "the happiest day of [her] life".{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/21/hilary-mantel-saudi-arabia |title=Once upon a life|work=The Observer Magazine|date= 21 February 2010|location=London|first=Hilary|last=Mantel}} She published memoirs of this period in The Spectator,{{cite news |last1=Mantel |first1=Hilary |title=Last Morning in Al Hamra |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/last-morning-in-al-hamra---shiva-naipaul-prize-1987 |access-date=26 September 2022 |work=The Spectator |date=1987}} and the London Review of Books.{{cite news |last1=Mantel |first1=Hilary |title=Diary: Bookcase Shopping in Jeddah |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v11/n07/hilary-mantel/diary |access-date=26 September 2022 |work=London Review of Books |date=30 March 1989 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Mantel |first1=Hilary |title=Someone to Disturb |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v31/n01/hilary-mantel/someone-to-disturb |access-date=26 September 2022 |work=London Review of Books |date=1 January 2009 |language=en}}

Mantel's first novel, Every Day Is Mother's Day, was published in 1985, and its sequel, Vacant Possession, a year later. After returning to England, she became the film critic of The Spectator, a position she held from 1987 to 1991,{{cite web|url=http://literature.britishcouncil.org/hilary-mantel|title=Hilary Mantel |work= Literature.britishcouncil.org|access-date=14 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212234223/http://literature.britishcouncil.org/hilary-mantel|archive-date=12 February 2015|url-status=dead}} and a reviewer for a number of papers and magazines in Britain and the United States.

Her third novel, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street (1988), drew on her life in Saudi Arabia. It features a threatening clash of values between the neighbours in a city apartment block to explore the tensions between Islamic culture and the liberal West.{{cite news |last=Anderson |first=Hephzibah |date=19 April 2009 |title=Hilary Mantel: on the path from pain to prizes |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/19/hilary-mantel-man-booker |access-date=30 July 2011 |newspaper=The Observer}}{{Cite book |last=Ray |first=Mohit K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A_YatfLrgnMC&pg=PA340 |title=The Atlantic Companion to Literature in English |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors |year=2007 |isbn=9788126908325 |page=340}}{{cite news |last=Rees |first=Jasper |date=8 October 2009 |title=Hilary Mantel: health or the Man Booker Prize? I'd take health |newspaper=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booker-prize/6271036/Hilary-Mantel-health-or-the-Man-Booker-Prize-Id-take-health.html |accessdate=30 July 2011}} Her Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize-winning novel Fludd (1989) is set in 1956 in a fictitious northern village called Fetherhoughton, centering on a Roman Catholic church and a convent. A mysterious stranger brings about transformations in the lives of those around him.{{cite book |title=Fludd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JiO2U05iv8kC&q=mantel+fludd+isbn |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |publisher=Viking Press |year=1989 |isbn=9780007354931}}

Mantel was a Booker Prize judge in 1990, when A.S. Byatt's novel Possession was awarded the prize.{{Cite web |title=The Booker Prize 1990 {{!}} The Booker Prizes |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/prize-years/1990 |access-date=24 September 2022 |website=thebookerprizes.com |language=en}}

A Place of Greater Safety (1992) became The Sunday Express Book of the Year, an award for which her two previous books had been shortlisted. This large-scale historical novel, informed by scholarly knowledge, traces the career of three French revolutionaries, Danton, Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins, from childhood to their early deaths during the Reign of Terror of 1794.{{cite book |title=A Place of Greater Safety |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G6saLhmubZsC&q=mantel+A+Place+of+Greater+Safety |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1992 |isbn=9780007354849}}

A Change of Climate (1994), partly set in rural Norfolk, explores the lives of Ralph and Anna Eldred, as they raise their four children and devote their lives to charity. It includes chapters about their early married life as missionaries in South Africa, when they were imprisoned and deported to Bechuanaland, and the tragedy that occurred there.{{cite book |title=A Change of Climate |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVs07EFhImkC&q=mantel+A+Change+of+Climate |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1994 |isbn=9780007354849}}

An Experiment in Love (1996), which won the Hawthornden Prize, takes place over two university terms in 1970. It follows the progress of three girls – two friends and one enemy – as they leave home and attend university in London. Margaret Thatcher makes a cameo appearance in this novel, which explores women's appetites and ambitions, and suggests how they are often thwarted. Though Mantel used material from her own life, it is not an autobiographical novel.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bibliofreak.net/2014/03/review-experiment-in-love-by-hilary.html|title=Review: An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel|website=bibliofreak.net|first=Matthew|last= Selwyn|date=20 March 2014}}

Her next book, The Giant, O'Brien (1998), is set in the 1780s, and is based on the true story of Charles Byrne (or O'Brien). He came to London to earn money by displaying himself as a freak. His bones hang today in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. The novel treats O'Brien and his antagonist, the Scots surgeon John Hunter, less as characters in history than as mythic protagonists in a dark and violent fairytale, necessary casualties of the Age of Enlightenment. She adapted the book for BBC Radio 4, in a play starring Alex Norton (as Hunter) and Frances Tomelty.{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/hilary-mantel-books-adapted-tv-theatre-b2173847.html|title=Which of Hilary Mantel books were adapted for the screen and stage?|first=Isobel |last=Lewis|date=23 September 2022|newspaper=The Independent}}

In 2003, Mantel published her memoir, Giving Up the Ghost, which won the MIND "Book of the Year" award. That same year she brought out a collection of short stories, Learning To Talk. All the stories deal with childhood and, taken together, the books show how the events of a life are mediated as fiction. Her 2005 novel, Beyond Black, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005.{{Cite web |title=Beyond Black {{!}} The Booker Prizes |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/beyond-black |access-date=24 September 2022 |website=thebookerprizes.com |date=3 May 2005 |language=en}} Novelist Pat Barker said it was "the book that should actually have won the Booker".{{Cite web |title=Celebrating Hilary Mantel: how the Wolf Hall author rewrote history {{!}} The Booker Prizes |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/celebrating-hilary-mantel |access-date=24 September 2022 |website=thebookerprizes.com |date=23 September 2022 |language=en}} Set in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it features a professional medium, Alison Hart, whose calm and jolly exterior conceals grotesque psychic damage. She trails around with her a troupe of "fiends", who are invisible but always on the verge of becoming flesh.{{cite book |title=Beyond Black |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NwnOtdUHTbIC&q=mantel+Beyond+black|first=Hilary |last=Mantel |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2005 |isbn=9780007268375}}

The long novel Wolf Hall, about Henry VIII's minister Thomas Cromwell, was published in 2009 to critical acclaim.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/sep/08/man-booker-shortlist|work=The Guardian|location=London|title=Booker Prize prize shortlist pits veteran Coetzee against bookies' favourite Mantel|first=Alison|last=Flood|date=8 September 2009|access-date=4 May 2010}}Rubin, Martin (10 October 2009), [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703746604574461110318457866 "Book Review: Hilary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall']{{closed access}} Wall Street Journal. The book won that year's Booker Prize and, upon winning the award, Mantel said, "I can tell you at this moment I am happily flying through the air".{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8292488.stm|work=BBC News|title=Mantel named Booker Prize winner|date=6 October 2009|access-date=4 May 2010}} Judges voted three to two in favour of Wolf Hall for the prize. Mantel was presented with a trophy and a £50,000 cash prize during an evening ceremony at the Guildhall, London.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/oct/06/booker-prize-hilary-mantel-wolf-hall|work=The Guardian|location=London|title=Booker prize goes to Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall|first=Mark|last=Brown|date=6 October 2009|access-date=4 May 2010}}{{cite news|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6863836.ece|title=The Booker got it right: Mantel's Cromwell is a book for all seasons|date=6 October 2009|work=The Times|access-date=7 October 2009|location=London|first=Neel|last=Mukherjee|author-link=Neel Mukherjee (writer)}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} The panel of judges, led by the broadcaster James Naughtie, described Wolf Hall as an "extraordinary piece of storytelling".{{cite news|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6863793.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101015222931/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6863793.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 October 2010|work=The Times|location=London|title=Booker Prize won by Hilary Mantels tale of historical intrigue|first=Ben|last=Hoyle|date=6 October 2009|access-date=4 May 2010}} Leading up to the award, the book was backed as the favourite by bookmakers and accounted for 45% of the sales of all the nominated books. It was the first favourite since 2002 to win the award. On receiving the prize, Mantel said that she would spend the prize money on "sex and drugs and rock' n' roll".{{cite news|last=Voigt|first=Claudia|title=Der schwarze Kern|newspaper=Der Spiegel|date=14 January 2013|pages=132–134|language=de}}

The sequel to Wolf Hall, called Bring Up the Bodies, was published in May 2012 to wide acclaim. It won the Costa Book of the Year and the 2012 Man Booker Prize; Mantel thus became the first British writer and the first woman to win the Booker Prize more than once.{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2012/10/16/163038934/hilary-mantel-first-woman-to-win-booker-prize-twice|first=Elizabeth|last=Blair|title=Hilary Mantel First Woman To Win Booker Prize Twice|newspaper=NPR.org|date=16 October 2012}}{{cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/05/wolf_hall_sequel_hilary_mantel_s_bring_up_the_bodies_reviewed_.html|work=Slate|title=Hilary Mantel's Heart of Stone|date=4 May 2012|access-date=4 May 2012}} Mantel was the fourth author to receive the award twice, following J. M. Coetzee, Peter Carey and J. G. Farrell.{{cite news |author=Clark, Nick |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/booker-prize-2012-hilary-mantel-could-become-first-british-writer-to-win-the-literary-prize-twice-after-bring-up-the-bodies-makes-shortlist-8125426.html |title=Booker Prize 2012: Hilary Mantel could become first British writer to win the literary prize twice after Bring up the Bodies makes shortlist |work=The Independent |date=11 September 2012 |access-date=17 October 2012 |location=London}}{{cite news |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=a4993nQqaUFw |work=Bloomberg |title=Hilary Mantel's 'Wolf Hall' Wins U.K. Booker Prize, 50,000 Pounds | last= Pressley|first= James |author2= Hephzibah Anderson|date=6 October 2009|access-date=14 May 2012}} This award also made Mantel the first author to win the award for a sequel.{{Cite news|last=Alter|first=Alexandra|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/books/hilary-mantel-mirror-and-the-light-thomas-cromwell.html|title=For Hilary Mantel, There's No Time Like the Past|date=24 February 2020|work=The New York Times|access-date=26 February 2020|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} The books were adapted into plays by the Royal Shakespeare Company and were produced as a mini-series by BBC. In 2020 Mantel published the third novel of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy, called The Mirror & the Light.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15788358|title=Hilary Mantel reveals plans for Wolf Hall trilogy|work=BBC News|date=18 November 2011|access-date=13 May 2012}}{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20887309 |title=Hilary Mantel wins 2012 Costa novel prize|date=2 January 2013 |access-date=2 January 2013|work=BBC News}} The Mirror & the Light was selected for the longlist for the 2020 Booker Prize.{{cite web |title=Booker Prize 2020: Hilary Mantel makes longlist |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53557876 |work=BBC News |access-date=28 July 2020 |date=28 July 2020}}

In 2014, Mantel published a collection of 10 short stories, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, which The Guardian called a "flawed but absorbing selection" singling out the story Sorry to Disturb for praise.{{Cite web |date=2014-09-24 |title=The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher review – Hilary Mantel's new collection |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/24/the-assassination-of-margaret-thatcher-review-hilary-mantel-collection-short-stories |first=James|last= Lasdun|access-date=2022-11-23 |website=The Guardian |language=en}} The New York Times described the collection as having "narrators much more outwardly meek and inwardly turbulent than the murderous royals and puppeteers so beloved in her historical fiction".{{Cite news |last=Maslin |first=Janet |title='The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher,' by Hilary Mantel - The New York Times |work=The New York Times |date=24 September 2014 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/books/the-assassination-of-margaret-thatcher-by-hilary-mantel.html}} The controversial title story is about an assassin who disguises himself as a plumber and takes over an apartment opposite the hospital where the Prime Minister is undergoing eye surgery. The woman who owns the apartment, and who is in effect a hostage, turns out to be surprisingly sympathetic to the assassin's cause.

She was also working on a short non-fiction book, titled The Woman Who Died of Robespierre, about the Polish playwright Stanisława Przybyszewska. Mantel also wrote reviews and essays, mainly for The Guardian,{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/hilary-mantel |title=Hilary Mantel {{!}} Books |website=The Guardian |access-date=26 May 2017}} the London Review of Books{{cite web |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/hilary-mantel |title=Hilary Mantel · LRB |website=www.lrb.co.uk |access-date=26 May 2017}} and The New York Review of Books.{{cite web |url=http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/hilary-mantel/ |title=Hilary Mantel |website=The New York Review of Books |access-date=26 May 2017}} The Culture Show programme on BBC Two broadcast a profile of Mantel on 17 September 2011.{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0152cyz |title=Hilary Mantel: A Culture Show Special |publisher= BBC Two |access-date=19 May 2012}}

In December 2016, Mantel spoke with The Kenyon Review editor David H. Lynn on the KR PodcastLynn, David H., [https://www.kenyonreview.org/conversation/kr-podcast-with-hilary-mantel/ "KR Podcast with Hilary Mantel"], Kenyon Review. about the way historical novels are published, what it is like to live in the world of one character for more than ten years, writing for the stage, and the final book in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, The Mirror & the Light.

She delivered five 2017 Reith Lectures on BBC Radio Four, talking about the theme of historical fiction.

• {{cite web |last1=Mantel |first1=Hilary |title=The Day Is for the Living |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08tcbrp |website=Reith Lectures |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |access-date=11 October 2022 |date=2017-06-17}}
• {{cite web |last1=Mantel |first1=Hilary |title=The Iron Maiden |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08v08m5 |website=Reith Lectures |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |access-date=11 October 2022 |date=2017-06-20}}
• {{cite web |last1=Mantel |first1=Hilary |title=Silence Grips the Town |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08vy0y6 |website=Reith Lectures |publisher=BBC Radio 4|access-date=11 October 2022 |date=2017-06-27}}
• {{cite web |last1=Mantel |first1=Hilary |title=Can These Bones Live? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08wp3g3 |website=Reith Lectures |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |access-date=11 October 2022 |date=2017-07-04}}
• {{cite web |last=Mantel |first=Hilary |title=Adaptation |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08x9947 |website=Reith Lectures |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |date=2017-07-11 |access-date=17 July 2020}}

Her final one of these lectures was on the theme of adaptation of historical novels for stage or screen. Mantel's lectures were selected by its producer, Jim Frank, as amongst the best of the long-running series.{{cite web |last=Frank |first=Jim |title=Ten of the best Reith Lectures |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5p0gRZmQ40dLvRbhqJtpVDC/ten-of-the-best-reith-lectures |access-date=18 July 2020 |website=BBC Online}}

At the time of her death in 2022, Mantel was working on a new novel which was characterized as a "mash-up" of Jane Austen novels.{{Cite news |last=Sherwood |first=Harriet |date=2023-04-20 |title=Hilary Mantel was working on 'mashup' of Jane Austen novels before her death |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/20/hilary-mantel-was-working-on-mashup-of-jane-austen-novels-before-her-death#:~:text=Hilary%20Mantel%20was%20working%20on,death%20%7C%20Hilary%20Mantel%20%7C%20The%20Guardian |access-date=2025-01-02 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

Mantel married Gerald McEwen in 1973. They divorced in 1981 but remarried in 1982.{{cite magazine|last=Emina|first=Seb|date=Spring–Summer 2020|url=https://thegentlewoman.co.uk/library/hilary-mantel_4|title=Hilary Mantel {{!}} The queen of historical fiction|magazine=The Gentlewoman|issue=21|access-date=1 May 2021}} McEwen gave up geology to manage his wife's business.{{cite web| url=http://m.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/mantel-she-writes-about-cromwell-but-henry-viii-is-the-key/article4170246/?service=mobile|title=Inverview Mantel: She writes about Cromwell, but Henry VIII is the key| work=The Globe and Mail|last=Renzetti|first=Elizabeth|date=18 June 2012|access-date=26 November 2012}} They lived in Budleigh Salterton, Devon.{{when|date=April 2022}}

During her twenties, Mantel had a debilitating and painful illness. She was initially diagnosed with a psychiatric illness, hospitalised, and treated with antipsychotic drugs, which reportedly produced psychotic symptoms. As a consequence, Mantel refrained from seeking help from doctors for some years. Finally, in Botswana and desperate, she consulted a medical textbook and realised she was probably suffering from a severe form of endometriosis, a diagnosis confirmed by doctors in London.

The condition, and what was considered at the time to be a necessary treatment – a surgical menopause at the age of 27 – left her unable to have children and continued to disrupt her life.{{cite news |last1=Mantel |first1=Hilary |title=Memories of Catriona |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v25/n03/hilary-mantel/memories-of-catriona |access-date=26 September 2022 |work=London Review of Books |date=6 February 2003}} She later said, "you've thought your way through questions of fertility and menopause and what it means to be without children because it all happened catastrophically." This led Mantel to see the problematised woman's body as a theme in her writing.{{Cite web |title=Hilary Mantel: 'Being a novelist is no fun. But fun isn't high on my list' |newspaper=The Guardian |date=4 October 2020 |access-date = 17 January 2021|url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/04/hilary-mantel-wolf-hall-mantel-pieces}} She later became patron of the Endometriosis SHE Trust.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/jun/07/health.genderissues |title='Every part of my body hurt' – Hilary Mantel on a little understood disease: endometriosis |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |date=7 June 2004|access-date = 17 January 2021|newspaper= The Guardian}}

Mantel has said of pain that "you have to find a way of living with it and living around it." She used autogenic training as one tool in living with her conditions.{{Cite web|url=https://x.com/bbc5live/status/1234825092481372160|title=x.com}}

Mantel died on 22 September 2022, aged 70, at a hospital in Exeter from complications of a stroke that occurred three days earlier.{{Cite web |date=23 September 2022 |title=Hilary Mantel, celebrated author of Wolf Hall, dies aged 70 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/23/hilary-mantel-author-wolf-hall-dies |first=Lucy |last=Knight |access-date=23 September 2022 |website=The Guardian}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/books/hilary-mantel-dead.html |title=Hilary Mantel, Prize-Winning Author of Historical Fiction, Dies at 70 |last1=Marshall |first1=Alex |last2=Alter |first2=Alexandra |newspaper=The New York Times |date=23 September 2022 |access-date=23 September 2022 |url-access=limited}}

During her university years (1970-73), Mantel identified as a socialist, and was a member of the Young Communist League.

In a 2013 speech on media and royal women at the British Museum, Mantel commented on Catherine Middleton, then the Duchess of Cambridge, saying that Middleton was forced to present herself publicly as a personality-free "shop window mannequin" whose sole purpose is to deliver an heir to the throne.{{cite news|last=Sherwin|first= Adam|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/hilary-mantel-attacks-bland-plastic-machinemade-duchess-of-cambridge-8500035.html |title=Hilary Mantel attacks 'bland, plastic, machine-made' Duchess of Cambridge|newspaper=The Independent'|date=19 February 2013|access-date= 19 February 2013}}"They also took up a total of four paragraphs in a 30-paragraph speech – less than one-seventh, in other words" according to Hadley Freeman [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/19/hilary-mantel-duchess-cambridge-scandal "Hilary Mantel v the Duchess of Cambridge: a story of lazy journalism and raging hypocrisy"], The Guardian, 19 February 2013. Mantel expanded on these views in an essay, "Royal Bodies", for the London Review of Books (LRB): "It may be that the whole phenomenon of monarchy is irrational, but that doesn't mean that when we look at it we should behave like spectators at Bedlam. Cheerful curiosity can easily become cruelty".Mantel, Hilary (21 February 2013). [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n04/hilary-mantel/royal-bodies "Royal Bodies"], London Review of Books, 35:4, pp.3–7.

These remarks stimulated substantial public debate. The Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband and Prime Minister David Cameron both criticised Mantel's remarks, while Jemima Khan defended Mantel.Sherwin, Adam. [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/david-cameron-defends-kate-over-hilary-mantels-shopwindow-mannequin-remarks-8501237.html "David Cameron defends Kate over Hilary Mantel's 'shop-window mannequin' remarks"], The Independent, 19 February 2013.Jessica Elgot. [http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/02/19/hilary-mantel-on-kate-middleton-right_n_2715638.html "Hilary Mantel And 10 Reasons Why She Might Be Right About Kate Middleton"], The Huffington Post, 19 February 2013. Zing Tsjeng praised the LRB essay, finding the "clarity of prose and analysis is just incredible".{{cite news |last1=Bryant |first1=Miranda |title='We've lost a genius': authors and politicians pay tribute to Hilary Mantel |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/23/hilary-mantel-genius-authors-politicians-pay-tribute |access-date=23 September 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=23 September 2022 |language=en}}

In September 2014, in an interview published in The Guardian, Mantel said she had fantasised about the murder of the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1983, and fictionalised the event in a short story called "The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: 6 August 1983". Allies of Thatcher called for a police investigation, to which Mantel responded: "Bringing in the police for an investigation was beyond anything I could have planned or hoped for, because it immediately exposes them to ridicule."{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/hilary-mantel-coalition-is-more-brutal-to-poor-and-immigrants-than-thomas-cromwell-9858630.html |location=London |work=The Independent |first=Adam |last=Sherwin |title=Hilary Mantel: Coalition government more brutal to poor and immigrants than Thomas Cromwell was |date=13 November 2014}}

Mantel discussed her religious views in her 2003 memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. Brought up as a Roman Catholic, she ceased to believe at age 12, but said the religion left a permanent mark on her:

{{blockquote| I took what I was told really seriously, it bred a very intense habit of introspection and self-examination and a terrible severity with myself. So that nothing was ever good enough. It's like installing a policeman, and one moreover who keeps changing the law.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2009/sep/12/hilary-mantel-booker-prize-interview|location=London|work=The Guardian|first=Aida|last=Edemariam|title=I accumulated an anger that would rip a roof off|date=12 September 2009}}}}

In a 2013 interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mantel stated: "I think that nowadays the Catholic Church is not an institution for respectable people. [...] When I was a child I wondered why priests and nuns were not nicer people. I thought that they were amongst the worst people I knew."{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/9262955/Hilary-Mantel-Catholic-Church-is-not-for-respectable-people.html |location=London |work=The Daily Telegraph |first=Anita |last=Singh |title=Hilary Mantel: Catholic Church is not for respectable people |date=13 May 2012}} These statements, as well as the themes explored in her earlier novel Fludd, led the Catholic bishop Mark O'Toole to comment: "There is an anti-Catholic thread there, there is no doubt about it. Wolf Hall is not neutral."{{cite web |url=http://www.catholicireland.net/concern-anti-catholic-bias-bbcs-wolf-hall/|title=Concern over anti catholic bias in BBC's Wolf Hall – Catholicireland.net |date=6 February 2015}}

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• 1987 The Spectator{{'}}s Shiva Naipaul Prize for travel writing{{cite news |last1=Tan |first1=Clarissa |title=The Spectator's Shiva Naipaul prize for outstanding travel writing is open for entries |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-spectator-s-shiva-naipaul-prize-for-outstanding-travel-writing-is-open-for-entries |date=22 August 2013|access-date=26 September 2022 |work=The Spectator}}{{cite news |title=Shiva naipaul memorial prize |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/tag/shiva%20naipaul%20memorial%20prize |access-date=26 September 2022 |work=The Spectator}} for Last Morning in Al Hamra
• 1990 Southern Arts Literature Prize for Fludd{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/23/dame-hilary-mantel-dead-aged-70/ | title=Dame Hilary Mantel dies aged 70 leaving behind unfinished novel | newspaper=The Telegraph | date=23 September 2022 | last1=Singh | first1=Anita | last2=Davies | first2=Gareth }}
• 1990 Cheltenham Prize for Fludd
• 1990 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize for Fludd{{cite web|title=The Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize|url=http://www.rslit.org/content/holtby|publisher=The Royal Society of Literature|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301190606/http://www.rslit.org/content/holtby|archivedate=1 March 2012}}
• 1992 Sunday Express Book of the Year for A Place of Greater Safety{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/23/dame-hilary-mantel-dead-aged-70/|title=Dame Hilary Mantel dies aged 70 leaving behind unfinished novel|first1=Anita|last1=Singh|first2=Gareth|last2=Davies|newspaper=The Telegraph |date=23 September 2022|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}
• 1996 Hawthornden Prize for An Experiment in Love{{Cite web|url=https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/hilary-mantel-obituary|title=Booker Prize-Winning Author Hilary Mantel Has Died At 70|date=23 September 2022|website=British Vogue}}
• 2003 MIND Book of the Year for Giving Up the Ghost (A Memoir){{Cite web|url=https://www.indiependent.co.uk/hilary-mantel-author-of-wolf-hall-dies-aged-70/|title=Hilary Mantel, Author of Wolf Hall, Dies Aged 70|first=Briony|last=Havergill|date=24 September 2022}}
• 2009 Booker Prize for Wolf Hall
• 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award for Wolf Hall{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/wolf-hall-wins-national-book-critics-circle-award-5527961.html|title='Wolf Hall' wins National Book Critics Circle Award|date=12 March 2010|website=The Independent}}
• 2010 Walter Scott Prize for Wolf Hall{{cite news |last1=Lea |first1=Richard |title=Hilary Mantel wins Walter Scott historical fiction prize for Wolf Hall |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/21/hilary-mantel-walter-scott-prize |work=The Guardian |date=21 June 2010 |language=en}}
• 2010 UK Author of the Year, Waterstones Book Awards, for Wolf Hall{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpY3GV0yTjI | title=Hilary Mantel – Waterstone's Author of the Year | website=YouTube | date=16 November 2010 }}
• 2012 Booker Prize for Bring Up the Bodies
• 2012 UK Author of the Year, British Book Awards, for Bring Up the Bodies{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/dec/05/el-james-national-books-award |title=EL James comes out on top at National Book awards |work=The Guardian |first=Alison |last=Flood |date=5 December 2012 |access-date=5 December 2012 |location=London}}
• 2012 Novel prize and Book of the Year, Costa Book Awards, for Bring Up the Bodies{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20887309 |title=Hilary Mantel wins 2012 Costa novel prize |author=Staff writer |author-link=Staff writer |date=2 January 2013 |access-date=2 January 2013 |work=BBC News}}{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jan/29/hilary-mantel-middlebrow-triumph-costa |title=Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies: a middlebrow triumph |work=The Guardian |author=McCrum, Robert |date=29 January 2013 |access-date=30 January 2013 |location=London}}{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9835561/Costa-Book-Award-who-would-dare-refuse-Hilary-Mantel-her-crown.html |title=Costa Book Award: who would dare refuse Hilary Mantel her crown? |work=The Telegraph |author=Rahim, Sameer |date=29 January 2013 |access-date=30 January 2013 |location=London}}
• 2013 David Cohen Prize{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/07/hilary-mantel-david-cohen-prize |title=Hilary Mantel adds David Cohen award to Booker and Costa prizes |work=The Guardian |first=Alison |last=Flood |date=7 March 2013 |access-date=8 March 2013 |location=London}}
• 2013 Literature prize, South Bank Show Awards, for Bring up the Bodies{{cite web| url = http://www.westendtheatre.com/21337/awards/south-bank-sky-arts-awards-winners-2013/| title= South Bank Sky Arts Awards – Winners 2013| date= 13 March 2013| publisher = West End Theatre| access-date = 18 February 2014}}
• 2016 British Academy President's Medal{{cite web|title=British Academy announces 2016 prizes and medal winners|url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/news/british-academy-announces-2016-prize-and-medal-winners|website=The British Academy|access-date=24 July 2017|date=27 September 2016}}
• 2016 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement[https://www.kenyonreview.org/programs/kenyon-review-award-for-literary-achievement/hilary-mantel/ "Hilary Mantel"], Kenyon Review.{{cite web|title=Kenyon Review for Literary Achievement|url=http://www.kenyonreview.org/programs/kenyon-review-award-for-literary-achievement/|website=KenyonReview.org}}
• 2020 Royal Society of Literature Companion of Literature{{cite web|title=Companions of Literature|url=https://rsliterature.org/companions-of-literature/|website=Royal Society of Literature|date=2 September 2023 |access-date=27 November 2023}}

{{div col end}}

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• Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2006 Birthday Honours{{cite web|url=https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/honorary-awards/hillary-mantel-cbe|title=Hilary Mantel CBE|publisher=Sheffield Hallam University|access-date=27 September 2022|archive-date=29 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220929212026/https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/honorary-awards/hillary-mantel-cbe|url-status=dead}}
• 2009 Honorary DLitt from Sheffield Hallam University{{cite journal | url=https://www.shu.ac.uk/_assets/pdf/newview-winter-09.pdf | title=Hallam's Class of 2009 | author= | journal=Newview | pages=14 | date=Winter 2009 | publisher=Sheffield Hallam University}}
• 2011 Honorary DLitt from the University of Exeter{{cite web |url=https://www.exeter.ac.uk/honorarygraduates/2011/honorarygraduates/ceremony2/ |title=Honorary graduates 2011–12 |publisher=University of Exeter |date=17 July 2011 |access-date=30 January 2016}}
• 2011 Honorary DLitt from Kingston University{{cite web|url=https://www.kingston.ac.uk/news/article/485/03-nov-2011-writer-hilary-mantel-receives-honorary-degree/|title=Writer Hilary Mantel receives honorary degree|date=3 November 2011|publisher=Kingston University London|access-date=1 May 2021}}
• 2013 Honorary DLitt from the University of Cambridge{{cite web | url=https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2012-13/weekly/6304/section1.shtml | work=Cambridge University Reporter | date=22 April 2013 | access-date=30 January 2016 | title=Congregation of the Regent House for Honorary Degrees on Tuesday, 18 June 2013: Notice}}
• 2013 Honorary DLitt from the University of Derby{{cite web | url=http://www.derby.ac.uk/newsevents/news/archive/news-archive/celebrated-author-hilary-mantel-to-be-honoured-by-university-of-derby.php | title=Celebrated Author Hilary Mantel To Be Honoured By University of Derby | publisher=University of Derby | date=10 December 2013 | access-date=30 January 2016}}
• 2013 Honorary DLitt from Bath Spa University{{cite web | url=http://www.bathspa.ac.uk/homepage/news/leading-figures-from-uk-arts-and-education-awarded-honorary-degrees-by-bath-spa-university | title=Leading figures from UK arts and education awarded honorary degrees by Bath Spa University | publisher=Bath Spa University | date=12 July 2013 | access-date=30 January 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206175100/https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/homepage/news/leading-figures-from-uk-arts-and-education-awarded-honorary-degrees-by-bath-spa-university | archive-date=6 February 2015 | url-status=dead }}
• Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours, for services to literature{{London Gazette |issue=60895 |date=14 June 2014 |page=b8 |supp=y}}
• 2015 Honorary LLD from the London School of Economics{{cite web | url=https://www.lse.ac.uk/law/news/2022/hilary-mantel | title=LSE Hilary Mantel obituary | publisher=London School of Economics | date=23 September 2022 | access-date=28 September 2022}}
• 2015 Honorary DLitt from the University of Oxford{{cite web | url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-02-19-oxford-announces-honorary-degrees-2015 | title=Oxford announces honorary degrees for 2015 | publisher=University of Oxford | date=19 February 2015 | access-date=30 January 2016}}
• 2015 Honorary degree from Oxford Brookes University{{cite web | url=https://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/news/inspirational-honorary-graduates-announced/ | title=Inspirational Honorary Graduates announced | publisher=Oxford Brookes University | date=3 June 2015 | access-date=30 January 2016 | archive-date=19 August 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220819082036/https://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/news/inspirational-honorary-graduates-announced/ | url-status=dead }}

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• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=Eight Months on Ghazzah Street |year=1988 |publisher=Viking Press |isbn=9780805052039}}{{cite news |last1=Atwood |first1=Margaret |author1-link=Margaret Atwood |date=June 2, 1996 |title=Little Chappies With Breasts |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/11/specials/mantel-experiment.html |access-date=29 September 2022 |work=The New York Times Book Review}}
• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=Fludd |year=1989 |publisher=Viking Press |isbn=9780670821181}}
• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=A Place of Greater Safety |year=1992 |publisher=Viking Press |isbn=9780312426392}}
• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=A Change of Climate |year=1994 |publisher=Viking Press |isbn=9780670830510}}
• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=An Experiment in Love |year=1995 |publisher=Viking Press|isbn=9780670859221}}{{cite news |author=Benfey, Christopher |author-link=Christopher Benfey |date=29 October 2009 |title=Sunday Book Review of Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/books/review/Benfey-t.html |newspaper=The New York Times}}
• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=The Giant, O'Brien |year=1998 |publisher=Fourth Estate |isbn=9781857028843|edition=hardcover}}
• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=Beyond Black |year=2005 |publisher=Fourth Estate |isbn=9780007157754|edition=hardcover}}

• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=Every Day Is Mother's Day |year=1985 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |isbn=070112895X}}
• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=Vacant Possession |year=1986 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |isbn=0701130474}}

• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=Wolf Hall |year=2009 |isbn=9780805080681 |publisher=Fourth Estate}} {{cite news |author=McGrath, Charles |date=25 May 2012 |title=Sunday Book Review of Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/books/review/bring-up-the-bodies-by-hilary-mantel.html |newspaper=The New York Times}}
• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=Bring Up the Bodies |year=2012 |isbn=9780805090031 |publisher=Fourth Estate}}
• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=The Mirror & the Light |year=2020 |publisher=Fourth Estate |isbn=9780007480999}}

• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=Learning to Talk |year=2003 |publisher=Fourth Estate |isbn=9780007166442}}
• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher |year=2014 |publisher=Fourth Estate |isbn=9780007580989}}{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/01/17/hilary-mantel-to-publish-the-assassination-of-margaret-thatcher/ | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=The Style Blog}}

• {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Mantel |author-mask=2 |title=Giving Up the Ghost |year=2003 |publisher=Fourth Estate |isbn=9780007148417}}

• [https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-realist-with-wings "A Realist With Wings"], Literary Review, September 1996
• [https://literaryreview.co.uk/pain-in-the-desert "Pain in the Desert"], Literary Review, September 1989
• [https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v22/n07/hilary-mantel/what-a-man-this-is-with-his-crowd-of-women-around-him! "What a man this is, with his crowd of women around him!"], London Review of Books, 30 March 2000.
• [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n05/hilary-mantel/some-girls-want-out "Some Girls Want Out"], London Review of Books, v. 26 no. 5, pg 14–18, 4 March 2004.
• [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n21/hilary-mantel/diary "Diary"], London Review of Books, 4 November 2010.
• [https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v38/n10/hilary-mantel/kinsella-in-his-hole "Kinsella in His Hole - A Story"], London Review of Books, 19 May 2016.
• [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n04/hilary-mantel/royal-bodies "Royal Bodies"], London Review of Books, 21 February 2013.
• [http://ioc.sagepub.com/content/45/3/64.extract "Blot, erase, delete: How the author found her voice and why all writers should resist the urge to change their past words"], Index Censorship, September 2016.
• Mantel Pieces{{Cite web |title=Mantel Pieces|url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/mantel-pieces/|access-date=16 January 2024 |website=Book Marks}}{{Cite web |title=Mantel Pieces Reviews |url=https://booksinthemedia.thebookseller.com/reviews/mantel-pieces|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927111259/https://booksinthemedia.thebookseller.com/reviews/mantel-pieces|archive-date=27 Sep 2021|access-date=11 July 2024 |website=Books in the Media}}
• A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing{{Cite web |title=A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing|url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/a-memoir-of-my-former-self-a-life-in-writing/|access-date=16 January 2024 |website=Book Marks}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://hilary-mantel.com}}
• [https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8gm8d1h/ Hilary Mantel Papers] — Huntington Library
• [https://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/hilary-mantel Profile] at London Review of Books
• [https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/hilary-mantel/ Profile] at The New York Review of Books
• [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/15/the-dead-are-real Profile] in The New Yorker
• Hilary Mantel. [https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n04/hilary-mantel/royal-bodies Royal Bodies] 2013 February 21 · London Review of Books Vol. 35 No. 4
• [http://www.fifthestate.co.uk/author/hilarymantel/ Articles by Hilary Mantel] on her publisher's blog, 5th Estate
• {{cite interview |interviewer=Mona Simpson |title=Hilary Mantel, Art of Fiction No. 226 |url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6360/art-of-fiction-no-226-hilary-mantel |date=Spring 2015 |periodical=The Paris Review |issue=212}}
• [http://abc.com.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2393914.htm Interview] with Ramona Koval, The Book Show, ABC Radio National, 2008-10-21
• {{Muckrack}}
• {{NPG name|id=6565}}

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