Hilary Mantel was a British writer born in Glossop, Derbyshire, on 6 July 1952. She grew up in a working-class Catholic family in the north of England, and later studied law before turning to writing. She lived for several years in Botswana and Saudi Arabia, experiences that fed into her early work. Her books range across contemporary fiction, a memoir, short stories and, most famously, historical novels. She was drawn to the way the past is remembered and to the ghosts, literal and figurative, that haunt people. Her trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, beginning with Wolf Hall, brought her worldwide fame and made her the first woman to win the Booker Prize twice. Her prose was precise, witty and often darkly funny, and she gave the Tudor court a vivid, intimate immediacy. She also wrote essays and reviews, and she spoke openly about chronic illness. She died on 22 September 2022, leaving a body of work admired for its intelligence and daring.
