British writer Hilary Mantel has died at the age of 70, HarperCollins Publishing has reported.
The late woman is the first writer to twice win the prestigious British Literary Prize, the Booker Prize.
“It is with great sadness that HarperCollins announces that the highly successful author, Hilary Mantell, passed away peacefully Thursday at the age of 70, surrounded by family and close friends,” the publishing house said in a statement.
The author published 17 works, the first of which was “Every Day is Mother’s Day” in 1985, but she gained great fame after publishing a series of three books entitled “Wolf Hole” (The Palace of Wolves) dealing with the turbulent life of Thomas Cromwell, who He was one of the most prominent faces of the reformist trend in England.
Mantell has twice won the prestigious British Literary Prize for the first two books (“Wolf Hole” and “Bring Up the Buddies”) in the series, which have been translated into 41 languages. As for the last book in the series, entitled “The Mirror and the Light” (published in 2020), it was praised by critics, and on the day of its release, queues of readers formed in front of bookstores to buy it.
Hilary Mantell (née Thompson at birth) was born on 6 July 1952 in Derbyshire to a family of Irish descent, and was raised with the disadvantages of being “a woman, North and poor”, as she notes in her memoir “Giving Up the Ghost” published in 2003.
Mantell imagined her life with a daughter she hadn’t actually had. She became infertile as a result of surgery for endometriosis.
After she continued her studies in law at the London School of Economics and then at the University of Sheffield, she joined to live with her husband, and they spent five years in Botswana, before returning to Britain in the mid-1980s.
“Hillary was the best of her generation, an important and courageous writer who shows great compassion in her work (…) We will all miss her presence, wisdom and sense of humor, and we cherish her amazing literary legacy,” said the chief executive of HarperCollins in the United Kingdom, according to what the statement quoted him as saying. “.
The writer Nicholas Pearson pointed out that each of Mantel’s books constitutes an “unforgettable plot with luminous sentences and unforgettable characters, with an amazing vision,” noting that the late woman was working last month on a new novel.
“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling tweeted that Mantell “was a genius”.
“All the prize holders are very sad” at the death of Hilary Mantel, the British literary prize “Booker” account wrote on Twitter.
#Twotime #Booker #Prize #winner #Hilary #Mantell #dies