Miles, Rylance and Leonard among stars reading at Mantel's memorial

Stars of the television and stage adaptations of Dame Hilary Mantel DBE’s Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (Fourth Estate) will be among the readers celebrating the life of the author, who died last September aged 70, at a special event at Southwark Cathedral on Thursday 20th April.  

Ben Miles will talk about his close collaboration with Mantel, Mark Rylance will read from The Wolf Hall Trilogy, Lydia Leonard will read from the London Review of Books lecture "Royal Bodies" and Aurora Dawson-Hunte will read an unfinished fragment of writing Mantel had been working on. Other readers and speakers will include one of Mantel’s lifelong friends Anne Preston, literary agent Bill Hamilton and editor Nicholas Pearson. Readings from acclaimed writers will be interspersed with music and excerpts from the BBC programme “Return to Wolf Hall”.  

Space at the service has been set aside for fans and other well-wishers. Anyone wishing to request a place can apply for a ticket here via Eventbrite. Tickets are free, though donations to the charity Scene & Heard, of which Mantel was patron, are welcomed. The charity partners inner-city children with adults, who help them to write plays which are then performed by professional actors.   

Roz Paul MBE, c.e.o. and artistic director of Scene & Heard, said: “Hilary was passionate about Scene & Heard because she, of course, absolutely understood the power of imagination transferred into the written word. She delighted in the unfiltered and unedited creativity of children’s minds brought to life on our stage by professional actors. She loved our shows and we loved her.” 

The celebration will begin at Southwark Cathedral at 2:30 p.m. and last for just over an hour. The family have asked for no floral tributes but for donations to be made to Scene and Heard.