Dame Hilary Mantel dies aged 70

A statement released by 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.”

Mantel was best known for The Wolf Hall Trilogy. She won the Man Booker Prize twice, first for Wolf Hall and then for its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies.

The third instalment of the trilogy, The Mirror & the Light, was published in 2020 and became an instant number one fiction best-seller. 

The Wolf Hall Trilogy has been translated into 41 languages and sold over 5 million copies worldwide.

Mantel was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, on 6 July 1952. She went on to study Law at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University, before moving into social work. She lived in Botswana for five years and then spent four years in Saudi Arabia, before returning to Britain in the mid-1980s. 

Mantel married geologist Gerald McEwen on Sep 23, 1972.