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John Murray to publish Mantel’s ‘magnificent’ collected writings
John Murray has acquired A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing by Hilary Mantel, a posthumous collection of her journalism.
Publisher Nicholas Pearson, formerly of Fourth Estate, who edited and published Hilary Mantel for 20 years, acquired UK and Commonwealth, excluding Canada, rights to the book from Bill Hamilton, managing director of A M Heath Literary Agency. John Murray will publish in the UK on 19th October 2023.
It will be published in the US by Henry Holt and in Canada by HarperCollins on 24th October 2023.
The audiobook will be published by W F Howes in the UK and Commonwealth, excluding Canada, on 19th October.
Subjects span nationalism and Mantel’s own sense of belonging; the mythic legacy of Princess Diana and the many themes that feed into Mantel’s novels – revolutionary France, psychics, Tudor England – and other novelists, from Jane Austen to V S Naipaul.
The publisher said: “She writes about her father and the man who replaced him; she writes fiercely and heart-breakingly about the battles with her health she endured as a young woman, and the stifling years she found herself living in Saudi Arabia. Here, too, is a selection of her film reviews – from ’Harry Met Sally’ to ’Robocop’ – and, published for the first time in one place, her stunning Reith Lectures, which explore the process of art bringing history and the dead back to life [...] A Memoir of My Former Self reveals the shape of Hilary Mantel’s life in her own words, ‘messages from people I used to be’. Compelling, often very funny, always luminous, it is essential reading from one of our greatest writers.”
The "major" publication will be marked with three events at Cheltenham Literature Festival, Stratford Literary Festival and at the British Library.
Pearson said: “Hilary Mantel lived to write. She invented herself on the page and, with A Memoir of My Former Self, a complete pattern of her life and its many interests emerges in prose that is endlessly dazzling. It is constantly entertaining and illuminating, in particular about her own experiences, from childhood to the last years of her life as she completed the Wolf Hall Trilogy [published by Fourth Estate]. I was lucky enough to be her editor for 20 years, but we can all know her better through this magnificent book.”
The Booker Prize Foundation are partnering with John Murray to mark publication and remember Mantel, including curating and hosting an event at the British Library on 24th October. Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, described it as a “blessing” to be working with the team at John Murray on “this wonderful posthumous collection of Hilary Mantel’s journalism”. Wood said: “She was an exceptional companion for thought, and this book should be placed – as she suggested of CS Lewis’s A Grief Observed – on a shelf that doesn’t exist, in a section called ‘the Human Condition’. These pieces, insightfully collected by her longtime editor Nicholas Pearson, play some of the chords beneath her work as a novelist. All of Mantel’s wit, her drive, her eloquence and irony are here, to keep the reader company once more.”
Mantel’s agent Hamilton, managing director of A M Heath Literary Agency, described the collection as “provocative, intimate, and often hilarious”, saying it “shows one of our great essayists writing with startling precision across a huge spectrum of topics, from the deeply personal to the sublime and the absurd. It is full of memorable delights and gives us a grandstand view of the life and career of an outstanding writer".
Bea Carvalho, head of books at Waterstones, commented: “Booksellers and readers everywhere were hugely saddened by the news of Hilary Mantel’s death last year: she was without a doubt one of the greatest writers of her generation, indeed of any generation, and her astonishing body of work will occupy an important space in bookshops for a long time to come. What a privilege it is, therefore, that we are able to look forward to a new book from Hilary – an unexpected last gift for readers which we can’t wait to share with the world in October. This is undoubtedly one of the year’s literary highlights: a glorious selection which Hilary’s many fans will devour, and an opportunity to introduce yet more readers to her wonderful words.”
