Her Life And The Cromwell Trilogy
Dame Hilary Mary Mantel is a prolific writer from England. She is known for her expertly crafted historical fiction novels, short stories and personal memoirs. Born in 1952, Mantel has won the Booker Prize twice so far. The first award was given for her book Wolf Hall. This is a semi-fictional account of Thomas Cromwell’s early days in Tudor court. Its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies was also awarded the Booker Prize.
This makes Mantel the only woman to have received this particular award twice. The only other writers to do so were J G Farrell, Peter Carey and J M Coetzee. She is currently writing the concluding third part of her Cromwell trilogy. The current title for this book is The Mirror and the Light.
Her O
ther Work
Mantel’s first novel was Every Day is Mother’s Day. This came out in 1985 and was soon followed by a sequel called Vacant Possession. She later worked as a film critic for The Spectator. She retained this position from 1987 to 1991. Mantel has also provided reviews for a number of other newspapers and magazines, both in the UK and US.
She continued to gain acclaim with her later novels such as Eight Months on Ghazzah Street. Released in 1988, this book draws on Mantel’s time when she lived in Saudi Arabia. One of the key themes is the clash between cultures in this nation.
Her book Fludd takes place in the mid 1950’s and deals with Roman Catholicism. In this story a mysterious character arrives in the fictional town of Fetherhoughton. He changes the lives of the other protagonists forever.