Dame Hilary Mantel, Author of Wolf Hall Trilogy, Dies at 70

Obituary

Dame Hilary Mantel, one of Britain's most decorated novelists, has died aged 70, her publisher has confirmed.

Mantel was best known for her Wolf Hall trilogy, which chronicled the life of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's chief minister. The first book in the trilogy, Wolf Hall, won the Booker Prize in 2009, and the second book, Bring Up the Bodies, won the prize again in 2012. The third book in the trilogy, Mirror and the Light, was published in 2020.

Mantel's other novels include Beyond Black, Fludd, and The Giant, O'Brien.

She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2014 for her services to literature.

Tributes

Tributes have been paid to Mantel from across the literary world.

"Hilary Mantel was one of the greatest novelists of our time," said Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale. "Her Wolf Hall trilogy is a masterpiece that will be read for generations to come."

"Hilary Mantel was a brilliant writer and a wonderful person," said Salman Rushdie, author of Midnight's Children. "Her death is a great loss to the literary world."