Live author interview with Hilary Mantel - Walter Scott Prize Shortlist Spotlight

[@patriciadavison1486]

What a fantastic interview-the best I have ever seen. Hilary Mantel’s work is nothing short of being utterly brilliant. I have read all three books several times and will read them again -just to experience the beauty and clarity of brilliant writing. I can hardly believe that she has had to leave us due to her ill health. My heart is full of sorrow. She has left us with the very best legacy - the gift of her sterling literary works. 🙏🏻

[@WalterScottPrizes]

Thank you Patricia. Hilary was so lovely to interview, and we were grateful to her for giving so much time to us. Wonderful to hear that her work has meant so much to you...to us, too!

[@KRISTIANITY_]

I'm in Bulgaria, and I only got seriously interested in the Tudors like a couple of years ago, and it took me some time to finally get to Hilary's work on Cromwell. I was reading Bring up the bodies and simultaneously going through all her interviews and lectures online, and I was absolutely stricken with the level of her intellect and way of expression, just sheer fascination with her person. And during that same time I suddenly saw the news about her passing, it just ripped me apart. Feels horrible coming to admire a creator for their work so profoundly, and then them just being snatched away. Thank you for publishing this wonderful interview, I really appreciate it.

[@WalterScottPrizes]

Thank you for your note. It is so hard to believe she is gone.

[@kimberlyperrotis8962]

I loved the Wolf Hall trilogy, the best reading in the last 20 years!

[@JanWritesMG]

What a fantastic interview! Hilary Mantels' advice to writers of historical fiction, young and old, is gold.

[@carlsmith8815]

I found this so inspiring and personal . I think it's extremely interesting when she talks about understanding people's basic motivation in an age of faith. Their preoccupations and expectations are so remote. Brilliant stuff. The books and the interview.

[@WalterScottPrizes]

Thank you, Carl!

[@michealociardubhain7574]

A fantastic interviewer meets an epic guest :) RIP HM

[@WalterScottPrizes]

Thank you Micheál.

[@margo3367]

In the ‘Mirror and the Light’ there’s a sense of foreboding. I don’t know how much that can be attributed to my knowing how it all ends, but I think, “Every day’s a crisis”, pretty much describes it. At a certain point you sense that there’s no turning back for Cromwell and no way out. I can’t say that Ms. Mantel made me like Thomas Cromwell; rather, she made me see him as a person and not a villain, someone I could empathize with and relate to. RIP Hilary Mantel. Just found out about her death at 70 yesterday. Gone too soon.

[@WalterScottPrizes]

Thank you for this.

[@KuwabaraAngel96]

I am at the part in the interview where they're discussing their favorite parts of the book. Now, I have read all three of these books multiple times, they're my absolute favorite books.The point at the end, during Cromwell's execution, where Christophe goes "I Christophe Cromwell curse you Henry....ect" make me cry every single time.

[@WalterScottPrizes]

That is a memorable scene all right - did you get a chance to see the stage play by any chance?

[@KuwabaraAngel96]

Oh I wish I could. I'm constantly on the lookout to see if it's ever going to come to my local theater. I think the closest I can get though is a six-hour drive away

[@diddums86]

For me, it's the little things that have become part of my every day life: like crossi g my arms when I've hurt my hand. Or shouting, "Doctor Cranmer has a secret! We don't know what it is!!" 😂

[@susanmitchell4744]

Hilary Mantel, such a clever woman. Brilliant, so sad she has gone.

[@WalterScottPrizes]

Her passing is such a loss.

[@amyclarke41]

rip😮‍💨

[@WalterScottPrizes]

It's so hard to believe she's gone