Dame Hilary Mantel, acclaimed Wolf Hall trilogy author, dies at 70

Dame Hilary Mantel, the acclaimed award-winning author behind the Wolf Hall trilogy, died suddenly on Thursday surrounded by friends and family. She was 70. No cause of death was reported.

Mantel's publisher, Fourth Estate, confirmed the news Friday, accompanied by sentiments from those who worked with her professionally.

"I first met Hilary in 1984 after she sent in the manuscript of Every Day Is Mother's Day," Bill Hamilton, Mantel's agent at A.M. Heath, said in a statement. "It has been the greatest privilege to work with her through the whole of her career, and to see all the elements that made her unique come together spectacularly in The Wolf Hall Trilogy. Her wit, stylistic daring, creative ambition, and phenomenal historical insight mark her out as one of the greatest novelists of our time."

"She will be remembered for her enormous generosity to other budding writers, her capacity to electrify a live audience, and the huge array of her journalism and criticism, producing some of the finest commentary on issues and books," Hamilton continued. "Emails from Hilary were sprinkled with bon mots and jokes as she observed the world with relish and pounced on the lazy or absurd and nailed cruelty and prejudice. There was always a slight aura of otherworldliness about her, as she saw and felt things us ordinary mortals missed, but when she perceived the need for confrontation she would fearlessly go into battle. And all of that against the backdrop of chronic health problems, which she dealt with so stoically. We will miss her immeasurably, but as a shining light for writers and readers she leaves an extraordinary legacy. Our thoughts go out to her beloved husband Gerald, family, and friends."

David Levenson/Getty Images Man Booker Prize–winning author Hilary Mantel has died.

Mantel published 17 books, including 2009's Wolf Hall, the fictionalized biography of Thomas Cromwell during the early 1500s. The book won the Man Booker Prize and the national Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in the same year. The success of Wolf Hall led to a trilogy: Bring Up the Bodies was released in 2012, and The Mirror and the Light was published in 2020. Mantel won numerous literary awards for the sequels as well.

The writer won the Booker Prize twice in her career, and was long-listed a third time in 2020. She is one of only a handful of authors — including Margaret Atwood, Peter Carey, and J.M. Coetzee — to win the honor twice.

There have been multiple adaptations of the Wolf Hall books, including stage productions. BBC notably presented a TV version in 2015 with actor Mark Rylance starring as Cromwell.

Born in Glossop, Derbyshire, England, in 1952, Mantel studied law at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University. She first worked as a social worker. Mantel lived in Botswana for five years, then Saudi Arabia for four years before returning to Britain in the 1980s.

Her other literary works include Every Day Is Mother's Day, Vacant Possession, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, Fludd, A Place of Greater Safety, and An Experiment in Love.

Mantel was awarded damehood in 2014 for her services to literature.

She is survived by her husband, Gerald McEwen.

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