Hilary Mantel

Biography

Hilary Mantel was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, England on 6 July 1952. She studied Law at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University. Hilary Mantel was employed as a social worker, and lived in Botswana for five years, followed by four years in Saudi Arabia, before returning to Britain in the mid-1980s. In 1987 Hilary Mantel was awarded the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for an article about Jeddah, and she was film critic for The Spectator from 1987 to 1991.

 

Hilary Mantel 's novels include Eight Months on Ghazzah Street (1988), set in Jeddah; Fludd (1989), set in a mill village in the north of England and winner of the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, the Cheltenham Prize and the Southern Arts Literature Prize; A Place of Greater Safety (1992), an epic account of the events of the French revolution that won the Sunday Express Book of the Year award; A Change of Climate (1994), the story of a missionary couple whose lives are torn apart by the loss of their child; and An Experiment in Love (1995), about the events in the lives of three schoolfriends from the north of England who arrive at London University in 1970, winner of the 1996 Hawthornden Prize.

Hilary Mantel 's recent novel The Giant, O'Brien (1998) tells the story of Charles O'Brien who leaves his home in Ireland to make his fortune as a sideshow attraction in London. Hilary's latest books are Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoir (2003), an autobiography in fiction and non-fiction told in four parts, taking the reader from early childhood through to the discoveries in adulthood that led her to writing, and Learning to Talk: Short Stories (2003).

Hilary Mantel 's new novel entitled Beyond Black (2005) tells the story of Alison, a Home Counties psychic, and her assistant, Colette.

Bibliography, Hilary Mantel

Every Day is Mother's Day Chatto & Windus, 1985
Vacant Possession Chatto & Windus, 1986
Eight Months on Ghazzah Street Viking, 1988
Fludd Viking, 1989
A Place of Greater Safety Viking, 1992
A Change of Climate Viking, 1994
An Experiment in Love Viking, 1995
The Giant, O'Brien Fourth Estate, 1998
On Modern British Fiction (contributor: "No Passes or Documents Are
Needed - the Writer at Home in Europe") Oxford University Press, 2002
Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoir Fourth Estate, 2003
Learning to Talk: Short Stories Fourth Estate, 2003
Beyond Black Fourth Estate, 2005

 

Prizes and awards, Hilary Mantel

1987 Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize
1990 Southern Arts Literature Prize Fludd
1990 The Cheltenham Prize Fludd
1990 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize Fludd
1992 Sunday Express Book of the Year A Place of Greater Safety
1996 Hawthornden Prize An Experiment in Love


Click here to read the Foreword by Hilary Mantel in this ebook.