Hilary Mantel
Encyclopedia
Hilary Mary Mantel CBE (born 6 July 1952), née Thompson, is an English novelist, short story writer and critic. Her work, ranging in subject from personal memoir to historical fiction, has been short-listed for major literary awards. In 2009, she won the Man Booker Prize
for her novel Wolf Hall
.
, Derbyshire, the eldest of three children, and was brought up in the Derbyshire mill village of Hadfield
, attending the local Roman Catholic primary school. Her parents, Margaret and Henry Thompson, were both born in England, of Irish descent. Her parents separated and she did not see her father after age eleven. Jack Mantel moved in and became her unofficial stepfather and she took his surname. Her family background, the mainspring of much of her fiction, is explained in her memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. She lost her religious faith at age 12 and says that this left a permanent mark on her: the "real cliche, the sense of guilt. You grow up believing that you're wrong and bad. And for me, because 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."
Mantel attended Harrytown Convent in Romiley
, Cheshire
(now Romiley, Greater Manchester
). In 1970 she began her studies at the London School of Economics
to read law. She transferred to the University of Sheffield
and graduated as Bachelor of Jurisprudence
in 1973.
, which was later published as A Place of Greater Safety.
In 1977 Mantel went to live in Botswana
with her husband, Gerald McEwen, a geologist
, whom she had married in 1972. Later they spent four years in Jeddah
in Saudi Arabia – she published a memoir of this time, "Someone to Disturb", in the London Review of Books
. Leaving Jeddah gave her the feeling that it was "the best day of my life". During her twenties, she suffered from a debilitating and painful illness. This was initially diagnosed as a psychiatric illness, for which she was hospitalised and treated with anti-psychotic drugs. These paradoxically produced psychotic symptoms; as a consequence, for some years she refrained from seeking help from doctors. Finally, in Botswana and desperate, she consulted a medical text-book and realised she was probably suffering from a severe form of endometriosis
, a diagnosis confirmed by doctors in London. The condition and necessary surgery left her unable to have children and continued to disrupt her life, with continued treatment by steroids causing weight gain and radically changing her appearance. She was patron of the Endometriosis SHE Trust.
, was published in 1985, and its sequel, Vacant Possession, a year later. Returning to England, she became the film critic of The Spectator
and a reviewer for a number of papers and magazines in Britain and the US.
Her novel Eight Months on Ghazzah Street
(1988), which drew on her first-hand experience in Saudi Arabia, uses the dangerous clash of values between the neighbours in a city apartment block to illustrate the tensions between Islam and the liberal West. Her Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize-winning novel Fludd
is set in 1956 in a fictitious northern village called Fetherhoughton, and centres on the convent
and Roman Catholic church. A mysterious stranger brings about alchemical transformation in the lives of the downtrodden, the depressed and the despised.
A Place of Greater Safety
(1992) won the Sunday Express Book of the Year award, for which her two previous books had been shortlisted. A long novel written with a close eye on historical accuracy, it traces the career of three revolutionaries, Danton
, Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins
, from childhood to their early deaths during the Terror of 1794.
A Change of Climate
(1994), set in rural Norfolk, explores the lives of Ralph and Anna Eldred, raising their four children and devoting 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.
An Experiment in Love, which won the Hawthornden Prize
, takes place over two university terms in 1970, and follows the progress of three girls – two friends and one enemy – as they leave home for university in London. Mrs Thatcher
makes a cameo appearance in a novel that explores women’s appetites and ambitions and suggests how they are often thwarted. Though Mantel has used material from her own life, it is not an autobiographical novel.
Her next book, The Giant, O’Brien, is set in the 1780s and is based on the true story of Charles O’Brien or Byrne, who came to London to exhibit 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
. Mantel adapted the book for BBC Radio
Four, in a play starring Lloyd Hutchinson as the Giant, Alex Norton
as John Hunter, and Frances Tomelty
and Deborah Finley as two of the women who cross their path.
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 into fiction. Her 2005 novel, Beyond Black, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Set in the years around the millennium, 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.
Some comparison has been made between Mantel's work and that of Muriel Spark
.
Mantel was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2006 Birthday Honours.
The long novel Wolf Hall, about Henry VIII
’s minister Thomas Cromwell, was published in 2009 to high critical acclaim. The book went on to win that year's Man Booker Prize
and upon winning the award, Mantel stated, "I can tell you at this moment I am happily flying through the air". Judges voted three to two in favour of Wolf Hall for the prize, with Mantel being presented with a trophy and a £50,000 cash prize during an evening ceremony at the London Guildhall. The panel of judges, led by the broadcaster James Naughtie
, described Wolf Hall as an "extraordinary piece of storytelling". Leading up to award, the book was backed as the favourite by bookmakers and accounted for 45% of all the nominated books' sales. By winning, it subsequently became the first favourite to win the award since 2002.
Mantel has begun work on the sequel to Wolf Hall. "What I have got at the moment is a huge box of notes." At one time the sequel was going to be titled The Mirror and the Light; however, the new title for the novel is Bring Up the Bodies. She is working on a short non-fiction book called The Woman Who Died of Robespierre, about the Polish playwright Stanisława Przybyszewska. Mantel also writes reviews and essays, mainly for The Guardian
, the London Review of Books
and the New York Review of Books.
The Culture Show
programme on BBC 2 broadcast a profile of Mantel on September 17th 2011.
Man Booker Prize
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...
for her novel Wolf Hall
Wolf Hall
Wolf Hall is a multi-award winning historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a fictionalized biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex in the court of Henry VIII of...
.
Early life
She was born in GlossopGlossop
Glossop is a market town within the Borough of High Peak in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the Glossop Brook, a tributary of the River Etherow, about east of the city of Manchester, west of the city of Sheffield. Glossop is situated near Derbyshire's county borders with Cheshire, Greater...
, Derbyshire, the eldest of three children, and was brought up in the Derbyshire mill village of Hadfield
Hadfield, Derbyshire
Hadfield is a parish and small residential town in High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It lies very close to the River Etherow which forms the border between Derbyshire and Greater Manchester...
, attending the local Roman Catholic primary school. Her parents, Margaret and Henry Thompson, were both born in England, of Irish descent. Her parents separated and she did not see her father after age eleven. Jack Mantel moved in and became her unofficial stepfather and she took his surname. Her family background, the mainspring of much of her fiction, is explained in her memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. She lost her religious faith at age 12 and says that this left a permanent mark on her: the "real cliche, the sense of guilt. You grow up believing that you're wrong and bad. And for me, because 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."
Mantel attended Harrytown Convent in Romiley
Romiley
Romiley is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It borders Marple, Bredbury and Woodley. In Roman times there is thought to have been a settlement along Sandy Lane...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
(now Romiley, Greater Manchester
Romiley
Romiley is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It borders Marple, Bredbury and Woodley. In Roman times there is thought to have been a settlement along Sandy Lane...
). In 1970 she began her studies at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
to read law. She transferred to the University of Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
and graduated as Bachelor of Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
in 1973.
Career and health
After university, Mantel worked in the social work department of a geriatric hospital, and then as a sales assistant in a department store. In 1974 she began writing a novel about the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, which was later published as A Place of Greater Safety.
In 1977 Mantel went to live in Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
with her husband, Gerald McEwen, a geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
, whom she had married in 1972. Later they spent four years in Jeddah
Jeddah
Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...
in Saudi Arabia – she published a memoir of this time, "Someone to Disturb", in the London Review of Books
London Review of Books
The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...
. Leaving Jeddah gave her the feeling that it was "the best day of my life". During her twenties, she suffered from a debilitating and painful illness. This was initially diagnosed as a psychiatric illness, for which she was hospitalised and treated with anti-psychotic drugs. These paradoxically produced psychotic symptoms; as a consequence, for some years she refrained from seeking help from doctors. Finally, in Botswana and desperate, she consulted a medical text-book and realised she was probably suffering from a severe form of endometriosis
Endometriosis
Endometriosis is a gynecological medical condition in which cells from the lining of the uterus appear and flourish outside the uterine cavity, most commonly on the ovaries. The uterine cavity is lined by endometrial cells, which are under the influence of female hormones...
, a diagnosis confirmed by doctors in London. The condition and necessary surgery left her unable to have children and continued to disrupt her life, with continued treatment by steroids causing weight gain and radically changing her appearance. She was patron of the Endometriosis SHE Trust.
Literary career
Her first novel, Every Day is Mother's DayEvery Day is Mother's Day
Every Day is Mother's Day is the first novel by British author Hilary Mantel, published in 1985 by Chatto and Windus. It was inspired in part by Hilary Mantel's own experiences as a social work assistant at a geriatric hospital which involved visits to patients in the community and access to case...
, was published in 1985, and its sequel, Vacant Possession, a year later. Returning to England, she became the film critic of The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
and a reviewer for a number of papers and magazines in Britain and the US.
Her novel Eight Months on Ghazzah Street
Eight Months on Ghazzah Street
Eight Months on Ghazzah Street is the third novel by English author Hilary Mantel, who won the Man Booker Prize in 2009. It concerns the Englishwoman Frances Shore, who moves to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to live with her husband, an engineer....
(1988), which drew on her first-hand experience in Saudi Arabia, uses the dangerous clash of values between the neighbours in a city apartment block to illustrate the tensions between Islam and the liberal West. Her Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize-winning novel Fludd
Fludd (novel)
Fludd is a 1989 novel written by Hilary Mantel and first published by Viking Press, it won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize that year.It is set in 1956, in Fetherhoughton, a fictional town somewhere on the moors of northern England, it centres on the convent and Roman Catholic church in the...
is set in 1956 in a fictitious northern village called Fetherhoughton, and centres on the convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
and Roman Catholic church. A mysterious stranger brings about alchemical transformation in the lives of the downtrodden, the depressed and the despised.
A Place of Greater Safety
A Place of Greater Safety
A Place of Greater Safety is a 1992 novel by Hilary Mantel. It concerns the events of the French Revolution, focusing on the lives of Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Maximilien Robespierre from their childhood through the execution of the Dantonists, and also featuring hundreds of other...
(1992) won the Sunday Express Book of the Year award, for which her two previous books had been shortlisted. A long novel written with a close eye on historical accuracy, it traces the career of three revolutionaries, Danton
Georges Danton
Georges Jacques Danton was leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. Danton's role in the onset of the Revolution has been disputed; many historians describe him as "the chief force in theoverthrow of the monarchy and the...
, Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins
Camille Desmoulins
Lucie Simplice Camille Benoît Desmoulins was a journalist and politician who played an important role in the French Revolution. He was a childhood friend of Maximilien Robespierre and a close friend and political ally of Georges Danton, who were influential figures in the French Revolution.-Early...
, from childhood to their early deaths during the Terror of 1794.
A Change of Climate
A Change of Climate
A Change of Climate is a novel by English author Hilary Mantel first published in 1994 by Viking Books, at the time The Observer described it as the best book she had written. It was published in the US by Henry Holt in 1997 when it was recognised by the New York Times Book Review as one of the...
(1994), set in rural Norfolk, explores the lives of Ralph and Anna Eldred, raising their four children and devoting 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.
An Experiment in Love, which won the Hawthornden Prize
Hawthornden Prize
The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award that was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender. Authors are awarded on the quality of their "imaginative literature" which can be written in either poetry or prose...
, takes place over two university terms in 1970, and follows the progress of three girls – two friends and one enemy – as they leave home for university in London. Mrs Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
makes a cameo appearance in a novel that explores women’s appetites and ambitions and suggests how they are often thwarted. Though Mantel has used material from her own life, it is not an autobiographical novel.
Her next book, The Giant, O’Brien, is set in the 1780s and is based on the true story of Charles O’Brien or Byrne, who came to London to exhibit himself as a freak. His bones hang today in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...
. 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
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
. Mantel adapted the book for BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
Four, in a play starring Lloyd Hutchinson as the Giant, Alex Norton
Alex Norton
Alexander Hugh "Alex" Norton is a Scottish actor. He is probably best known for his roles as DCI Matt Burke in Taggart, and Eddie in the Renford Rejects....
as John Hunter, and Frances Tomelty
Frances Tomelty
Frances Tomelty is a Northern Irish actress and the first wife of Sting. She is the daughter of Belfast actor Joseph Tomelty ....
and Deborah Finley as two of the women who cross their path.
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 into fiction. Her 2005 novel, Beyond Black, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Set in the years around the millennium, 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.
Some comparison has been made between Mantel's work and that of Muriel Spark
Muriel Spark
Dame Muriel Spark, DBE was an award-winning Scottish novelist. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".-Early life:...
.
Mantel was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2006 Birthday Honours.
The long novel Wolf Hall, about Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
’s minister Thomas Cromwell, was published in 2009 to high critical acclaim. The book went on to win that year's Man Booker Prize
Man Booker Prize
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...
and upon winning the award, Mantel stated, "I can tell you at this moment I am happily flying through the air". Judges voted three to two in favour of Wolf Hall for the prize, with Mantel being presented with a trophy and a £50,000 cash prize during an evening ceremony at the London Guildhall. The panel of judges, led by the broadcaster James Naughtie
James Naughtie
James Naughtie is a British radio presenter and radio news presenter for the BBC. Since 1994 he has been one of the main presenters of Radio 4's Today programme.- Biography :...
, described Wolf Hall as an "extraordinary piece of storytelling". Leading up to award, the book was backed as the favourite by bookmakers and accounted for 45% of all the nominated books' sales. By winning, it subsequently became the first favourite to win the award since 2002.
Mantel has begun work on the sequel to Wolf Hall. "What I have got at the moment is a huge box of notes." At one time the sequel was going to be titled The Mirror and the Light; however, the new title for the novel is Bring Up the Bodies. She is working on a short non-fiction book called The Woman Who Died of Robespierre, about the Polish playwright Stanisława Przybyszewska. Mantel also writes reviews and essays, mainly for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, the London Review of Books
London Review of Books
The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...
and the New York Review of Books.
The Culture Show
The Culture Show
The Culture Show is a weekly BBC Two Arts magazine programme. It is broadcast in the UK on Thursday nights at 7pm, focusing on the best of the week's arts and culture news, covering books, art, film, architecture, music, visual fashion and the performing arts...
programme on BBC 2 broadcast a profile of Mantel on September 17th 2011.
Articles
- "What a man this is, with his crowd of women around him!", London Review of Books, 30 March 2000.
- "Some Girls Want Out", London Review of Books, v. 26 no. 5, pg 14-18, 4 March 2004. Describes extreme fasting for religious purposes as "holy anorexia", with a comparison with "secular anorexia", tying the two together as "social hypocrisy".
- "Diary", London Review of Books, 4 November 2010.
Prizes and awards
- 1987, Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize
- 1990, Southern Arts Literature Prize (Fludd)
- 1990, Cheltenham Prize (Fludd)
- 1990, Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize (Fludd)
- 1992, Sunday Express Book of the Year (A Place of Greater Safety)
- 1996, Hawthornden PrizeHawthornden PrizeThe Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award that was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender. Authors are awarded on the quality of their "imaginative literature" which can be written in either poetry or prose...
(An Experiment in Love) - 2003, MIND Book of the Year (Giving Up the Ghost (A Memoir))
- 2006, Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book) (shortlist) (Beyond Black)
- 2006, CBECBECBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
- 2006, Orange Prize for FictionOrange Prize for FictionThe Orange Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, annually awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English, and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year...
(shortlist) (Beyond Black) - 2009, Man Booker PrizeMan Booker PrizeThe Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...
(winner) (Wolf Hall) - 2010, Orange Prize for FictionOrange Prize for FictionThe Orange Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, annually awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English, and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year...
(shortlist) (Wolf Hall) - 2010, Walter Scott PrizeWalter Scott PrizeThe Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction is a British literary award founded in 2010. At £25,000 it is one of the largest literary awards in the UK...
(winner) (Wolf Hall)
External links
- Online Wall Street Journal review
- Enhanced Editions iPhone App of Wolf Hall
- Interview with Ramona KovalRamona KovalRamona Koval is an Australian broadcaster, writer and journalist.Her parents were Yiddish-speaking survivors of the Holocaust who arrived in Melbourne from Poland in 1950....
, The Book Show, ABC Radio National, 21.10.08 - Profile in The New Yorker magazineThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
- Mantel archive from The New York Review of Books
- Hilary Mantel goes from Booker outsider to favourite in 48 hours
- Cromwell Unshadowed, Razor Sharp, Janet Maslin, The New York Times, 4 October 2009
- Hilary Mantel on Wolf Hall Video
- Articles by Hilary Mantel on her publisher's blog, 5th Estate