Wolf Hall author Dame Hillary Mantel dies 'suddenly yet peacefully' aged 70

23 September 2022, 11:25 | Updated: 23 September 2022, 12:12

Dame Hilary Mantel has died "suddenly yet peacefully" at the age of 70, according to a statement from her publishers.

HarperCollins said: "It is with great sadness that AM Heath and HarperCollins announce that bestselling author Dame Hilary Mantel DBE died suddenly yet peacefully yesterday, surrounded by close family
and friends, aged 70.

"Hilary Mantel was one of the greatest English novelists of this century and her beloved works are considered modern classics. She will be greatly missed."

The author was best known for series The Wolf Hall Trilogy, of which Diarmaid MacCulloch, Oxford theology professor and biographer of Thomas Cromwell said: "Hilary has reset the historical patterns through the way in which she’s reimagined the man."

In an interview with The Guardian, Dame Hilary said it took years to research the books to ensure they were historically accurate portrayals.

She said it was her aim to put the reader in "that time and that place, putting you into Henry's entourage".

"The essence of the thing is not to judge with hindsight, not to pass judgement from the lofty perch of the 21st Century when we know what happened," she said.

"It's to be there with them in that hunting party at Wolf Hall, moving forward with imperfect information and perhaps wrong expectations, but in any case moving forward into a future that is not pre-determined, but where chance and hazard will play a terrific role."

Harry Potter author JK Rowling paid tribute to Dame Mantel in a tweet, writing: "We've lost a genius."

Dame Mantel won two booker prizes - the first woman to do so.

She won her first Booker Prize for Wolf Hall and then another for its sequel: Bring Up the Bodies. The conclusion to the Wolf Hall Trilogy - The Mirror & the Light - was published in 2020 to critical acclaim.

The book was an instant number one fiction best-seller. It was long-listed for The Booker Prize 2020, and won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

Dame Mantel was born on 6 July 1952 in Glossop, Derbyshire. The author studied law at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University.

She was employed as a social worker, and lived in Botswana for five years, then Saudi Arabia for four years, before returning to Britain in the mid-1980s.

Dame Mantel married geologist Gerald McEwen on September 23, 1972.

In 1990 she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. The author was also awarded a CBE in 2006 and was appointed DBE in 2014.

Dame Hilary was patron of Scene and Heard, a theatrical mentoring project, Governor of RSC and President of the Budleigh Festival.

Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, also paid tribute on Twitter, calling the news "terribly sad" and that it was "impossible to overstate the significance of the literary legacy Hilary Mantel leaves behind."

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Paying tribute, her agent at AM Heath, Bill Hamilton, said:

"I first met Hilary in 1984 after she sent in the manuscript of Every Day is Mother’s Day. 

"It has been the greatest privilege to work with her through the whole of her career, and to see all the elements that made her unique come together spectacularly in The Wolf Hall Trilogy.

"Her wit, stylistic daring, creative ambition and phenomenal historical insight mark her out as one of the greatest novelists of our time. She will be remembered for her enormous generosity to other budding writers, her capacity to electrify a live audience, and the huge array of her journalism and criticism, producing some of the finest commentary on issues and books. 

"Emails from Hilary were sprinkled with bon mots and jokes as she observed the world with relish and pounced on the lazy or absurd and nailed cruelty and prejudice. 

"There was always a slight aura of otherworldliness about her, as she saw and felt things us ordinary mortals missed, but when she perceived the need for confrontation she would fearlessly go into battle. 

"And all of that against the backdrop of chronic health problems, which she dealt with so stoically. 

"We will miss her immeasurably, but as a shining light for writers and readers she leaves an extraordinary legacy. Our thoughts go out to her beloved husband Gerald, family and friends."

Nicholas Pearson, former Publishing Director of 4th Estate and Hilary’s long-term editor said:

"The news of Hilary’s death is devastating to her friends and everyone who worked with her. Hilary had a unique outlook on the world — she picked it apart and revealed how it works in both her contemporary and historical novels — every book an unforgettable weave of luminous sentences, unforgettable characters and remarkable insight. 

"She seemed to know everything. For a long time she was critically admired, but The Wolf Hall Trilogy found her the vast readership she long deserved. Read her late books, but read her early books too, which are similarly daring and take the reader to strange places. 

"As a person Hilary was kind and generous and loving, always a great champion of other writers. She was a joy to work with. Only last month I sat with her on a sunny afternoon in Devon, while she talked excitedly about the new novel she had embarked on. 

"That we won’t have the pleasure of any more of her words is unbearable. What we do have is a body of work that will be read for generations. "We must be grateful for that. I will miss her and my thoughts are with her husband Gerald."