Throwback Thursday - Meeting Hilary Mantel

This article was first posted on my Facebook page back in May 2012. Here, I give an account of the day I met Hilary Mantel, who did a special lecture about writing the Wolf Hall trilogy!:

19th May 2012:

“Today I got to meet THE Hilary Mantel!! She did a lecture about her new book ‘Bring up the Bodies’. She first read an extract from the book describing Cromwell. She said that she's grown to like Cromwell more as she has written the books because she is always left in awe of how he always managed to pull it off and get out of tight corners.

On talking about the third book, which will be ‘The Mirror and the Light’, the reason for the title was because there was a saying which compared the reign of Henry VIII to a Mirror and the Light. She exclusively revealed that the very first line of ‘Wolf Hall’ - Walter shouting at Thomas ‘So now get up’ - will be the line to end the third book as it is Walter's words that will be in is mind on the scaffold.

On questioning Thomas private life, Hilary revealed that in her research, she found him to be very quiet about that side, uncertain whether he was hiding something, or that there simply wasn't anything. However, in the third book, she has written that he does show some interest in Jane Seymour's sister.

With reference to his feelings towards Jane Seymour, when she did her research, she found that he gave a very angry, rare, emotional response to Jane's death, finding people to blame such as the ladies-in-waiting around her. This may have given some insight into his possible feelings towards her, although as soon as Henry had shown an interest in her, he backed off.

As she wrote the books, Hilary said she was also almost shouting at Cromwell ‘Get Married!!!’ as later in 1540, he is accused of plotting to marry Princess Mary to make himself King. Maybe if he'd married earlier, this would not have given his enemies at court a bone to knaw at?

Hillary commented on Thomas relationship with Chapuys, how they were opponents, but in some ways admired each other, doing deals for each other. Hilary also said that she liked Chapuys - she referred to him as the ‘biggest’ gossip. He wrote to Spain long letters, two or three times a week!

Hilary also got the sense that Thomas knew what his fate would be, particularly after Anne's execution. There is a line towards the end of ‘Bring up the Bodies’ where ‘Call-Me’ says to Cromwell that if this is what he could do to the Cardinal's enemies, what could he do to the King? As we know, later in 1540, Thomas Cromwell was accused of plotting against the King.

It made me laugh when she said that she got lots of complaints about the way she wrote ‘Wolf Hall’ using ‘He’ a lot, so she has made a point in ‘Bring up the Bodies’ of writing ‘He, Thomas Cromwell’! Even when she read the extract, she highlighted that it was Thomas!

She also described Henry's court as ‘incestuous’ - the way people had flings with relatives or friends of exes (i.e. Henry getting involved with both Boleyn girls AND possibly the mum if the rumours were true!). This was enough to create an atmosphere which by the time 1536 came around, was enough to make people believe the worst of anyone, particularly Anne and George Boleyn. The execution scene at the end was written with the babies that had been miscarried by Anne in mind – ‘he swaddles it, like a newborn’.

She read another extract from the book and then ended with a quote from Jane Seymour which pretty much summed-up the Tudor court and Anne's fall, that people did not need to plot as Anne had eventually spoke her own way to the scaffold - no woman could do what Anne had done AND live a long life.”

Image - Hilary signed my book after the lecture!