You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Book trade pays tribute to ‘genius’ Hilary Mantel after novelist’s death, aged 70
Book industry figures have paid tribute to “one of the greatest novelists of her generation” Dame Hilary Mantel, following the Wolf Hall trilogy author’s death at the age of 70.
Mantel, who wrote 17 books during her career and had just embarked on a new novel, passed away “suddenly and peacefully” on 22nd September surrounded by close family and friends.
Bill Hamilton, her agent at literary agency A M Heath, said: “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.”
Nicholas Pearson, former publishing director of Fourth Estate and Mantel’s long-term editor, said: “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 upon. 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.”
Bea Carvalho, Waterstones head of fiction, called Mantel “one of the greatest novelists of her generation, or indeed any generation”, adding: “She leaves behind a body of work that will be beloved by readers for many years to come. Her genre-defining novels set the standard for historical fiction, and fiction in general, and her influence across the genre is immeasurable. It was our great privilege to host Hilary Mantel at a very special event to celebrate The Mirror & the Light (Fourth Estate) in March 2020, the happy memory of which sustained us all through the difficult first lockdown. She will be missed greatly by booksellers and readers everywhere, but we will remember her fondly for her wisdom, warmth and generosity, and will find comfort in her brilliant words. Our thoughts are with her family.”
Caroline Michel, c.e.o. of literary agency PFD, told The Bookseller: “Hilary Mantel’s passing is a great tragedy, but the first thing one wants to do is to go back through that extraordinary library of novels – that rich tapestry of works, which goes beyond Wolf Hall and covers 40 years of astonishing writing and great books. Those books, that writing and Mantel’s words will endure.”
Mantel was the only British author to win the Booker Prize twice – for Wolf Hall in 2009 and its sequel Bring Up the Bodies in 2012, both published by Fourth Estate.
Gaby Wood, director of the Booker Prize Foundation, told The Bookseller Mantel’s death was “a horrible shock”. “Our first and most heartfelt thoughts are with her husband, Gerald McEwen,” she said. “She was much loved by everyone here at the Booker, a prize she judged long before she was shortlisted for Beyond Black and won with the first two volumes of her Wolf Hall trilogy, the last of which was also nominated.
“She was indefatigably generous towards other writers. Her incisive praise lives on many a book jacket, drawing readers towards work they might not otherwise have met.
“In her own work she was surrounded by a staunch team of supporters and collaborators – Gerald, her agent Bill Hamilton, her editor Nicholas Pearson – without whom, it was clear, her books could not exist. And she was moving, with her usual intellectual voraciousness, into a new realm, having spent the best of two decades with Thomas Cromwell.
“It’s hard to take in the fact that we won’t hear more from her brilliant mind: its mixture of mischief, imagination, scholarship and literary skill is truly without peer – and its influence immeasurable.”
Alongside the Booker, her long list of award wins included picking up the Walter Scott Prize twice, for Wolf Hall and again for the trilogy’s third instalment The Mirror & the Light. The prize’s founders and judges said in a statement they were “beyond saddened” to learn of her passing.
They said: “A warm, gracious and generous winner, she always acclaimed her fellow shortlisted authors and gave invaluable support and advice to the young writers she met through the Young Walter Scott Prize. She leaves behind a quite extraordinary body of work, but will perhaps be remembered particularly for her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, described by the Walter Scott Prize judges as ‘a masterpiece’.
“The loss of Hilary Mantel to the whole literary world is enormous and the loss to the historical novel greater still. Few writers will ever match either her insights or her imagination. She was that rare thing, a genius. How we will miss her.”
Fellow authors also paid tribute to her, with Elizabeth Day saying literature had “lost one of its brightest lights” and J K Rowling calling her “a genius”. Margaret Atwood told the Guardian: “It was always a pleasure to read such a smart, deft, meticulous, thoughtful writer, and one with such a grasp of the dark and spidery corners of human nature – and a pleasure to review her too, which I did both early and late. A Place of Greater Safety was an eye-opener about the French Revolution, and the Cromwell trilogy was a well-known stunner. She never shied away from the difficult folks, and doled out a tad of redemption for even the most hardened cases. What might she have written next? I don’t know, but I will miss it.”
Mantel was also a “supportive and involved” president of the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival, the event’s team said. “She was committed to the extent that she had intended to remain as president despite her plans to move to Ireland,” they said. “We will miss her beyond measure. The world has lost a hugely talented writer, and a warm, generous-hearted woman. Budleigh Salterton has lost a friend. Our hearts go out to her husband Gerald at this very sad time.”
