The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureLiterature

Hilary Mantel wins the 2012 Man Booker Prize

Hilary Mantel wins the 2012 Man Booker Prize
18 October 2012
The editorial unit
Avatar
The editorial unit
18 October 2012

Hilary Mantel won the Man Booker Prize for the second time making her the first female novelist to do so. Receiving the £50,000 prize at last Tuesday’s ceremony, Mantel joked “you wait 20 years and two come along at once”.

Hilary Mantel’s first Man Booker prize winning novel Wolf Hall (2009), chronicled the life of the controversial historical figure Thomas Cromwell, charting his rise from relative poverty and obscurity to becoming part of Henry VIII’s inner circle, influencing the most important political decisions of the day as the King’s most powerful minister.

Bring up the Bodies – the second novel in what will become a historical trilogy – sees Cromwell pitted against Anne Boleyn as she begins to lose favour with the King for not baring a male heir, only increasing in light of his growing affections for the next queen, Jane Seymour. His infamous Machiavellian approach to politics is portrayed through his involvement with Boleyn’s downfall, made all the more engrossing as Mantel delicately imagines his inner thinking and devious plotting to strengthen his growing profile under the Tudor monarchy.

Both novels are credited with re-telling a tale any school pupil will be familiar with, the drama of Henry VIII’s court and marriages, with a fresh eyes. The chair of judges Sir Peter Stothard stated that Bodies is a “very remarkable piece of prose that transcends the work already written by a great English prose writer. This is a bloody story of Anne Boleyn. Mantel is a writer who thinks through blood. She uses her art, her power of prose, to create moral ambiguity and the real uncertainty of political life – then and now.”

With two well deserved windfalls of £50,000 in four years, will the 60-year-old Mantel be slowing down?

“I think I’ve got a few writing years in me yet”.

And what did Hilary spend her 2009 winnings on?

“Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll”. This year? “Rehab”.

This novelist clearly hasn’t lost her knack for quick humour and excellent delivery, precisely why thousands of avid readers will be anxiously awaiting the final instalment of the trilogy The Mirror and the Light.

The editorial unit

For further information about the Man Booker Prize visit the prize’s website here.

Related Items

More in Literature

The Buddhist on Death Row by David Sheff

★★★★★
Laura Boyle
Read More

Walk with Me in Sound – the audiobook: A harmonious introduction to a mindful lifestyle

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Midnight in Everwood by MA Kuzniar

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

The Simplest Gift by Stefanos Xenakis

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

Mothers, Fathers and Others by Siri Hustvedt

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

Things We Do Not Tell the People We Love by Huma Qureshi

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

The Snow Song by Sally Gardner

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More

Next of Kin by Kia Abdullah

★★★★★
Elizaveta Kolesova
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Albert Adrià reopens Enigma on 7 June as a “fun-dining” restaurant and cocktail bar
    Food & Drinks
  • The Road Dance
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Paolo Nutini at the 100 Club
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Crimes of the Future: Three new clips from David Cronenberg’s dystopian body horror film
    Cannes
  • The Innocents
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Marcel!
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • More than Ever (Plus que Jamais)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Plan 75
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Enys Men
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • The Stranger
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • More than Ever (Plus que Jamais)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Plan 75
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
  • Dirty Dancing the Movie in concert at Apollo Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic at the British Museum
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Eo (Hi-Han)
    ★★★★★
    Cannes
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Martyn Joseph – Songs for the Coming Home‏ | Album review
Kristina Train – Dark Black | Album review