Hilary Mantel, author of ‘Wool Hall,’ At the age of 70, What caused Hilary Mantel’s death?

Hilary Mantel, the two-time Booker Prize winner famed for her novels “Wolf Hall” and “Bring Up the Bodies,” has died. She was 70 years old.

Her death, which is reported to have been unexpected, was confirmed on Friday afternoon local time by her publisher’s 4th Estate Books and HarperCollins U.K.

Even more from Variety

The BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s ‘The Mirror and the Light’ will continue as a memorial to the great British author (EXCLUSIVE)

Hilary Mantel is the author of ‘Wood Hall.’ Writers, directors, and others remember

‘The Mirror and the Light’ Review: Hilary Mantel’s Historical Trilogy Comes to a Close

“We are grieved by the passing of our beloved author, Dame Hilary Mantel, and our sympathies are with her friends and family, especially her husband, Gerald,” 4th Estate Books and HarperCollins said in a joint statement released on social media.

This is a tragic loss, and we can only be thankful that she left us with such a beautiful body of work.”

Mantel is a well-known novelist in the United Kingdom. Though she penned more than a dozen books, her iconic Tudor drama “Wolf Hall” — which was transformed into an award-winning BBC drama directed by Peter Kosminsky and starring Mark Rylance and Damien Lewis — and its sequel “Bring Up the Bodies” has earned international recognition in the previous 15 years.

Mantel is the first British novelist and the first woman to win two Booker awards, according to HarperCollins U.K. Mantel is also the only author to have won two novels in a row.

The cause of death has not been disclosed, but Mantel had been active in recent months, including a ‘Questionnaire’ interview with London’s Financial Times, which was published on September 10. When asked what attribute she finds “particularly aggravating” in others, the author replied, “Toryism.”

In answer to a query about her fitness, Mantel, who apparently has endometriosis, said, “When I was tiny, an unpleasant doctor dubbed me ‘Little Miss Neverwell.'” I’m now Great Dame Never well.

My health is uncertain and a constant cause of stress for me. But I’m continuously searching for ways to improve.”

Mantel was born in northern Derbyshire in 1952 and educated at a Cheshire convent school. She studied law at Sheffield University and the London School of Economics.

Mantel worked as a social worker in a geriatric hospital after graduating from university, experiences that influenced her books “Every Day is Mother’s Day” and “Vacant Possession.”

Mantel and her husband Gerald McEwen moved to Botswana in 1977, then to Saudi Arabia in 1982. “Eight Months on Ghazzah Street,” the author’s third work, is set in Jeddah.

Mantel returned to the United Kingdom in 1986 and worked as a film critic for the Spectator. Her first novel, “Fludd,” earned several awards in the United Kingdom, and her fifth novel, “A Place of Greater Safety,” won the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award.

Mantel, on the other hand, became a global hit with “Wolf Hall,” which won the Man Booker Prize in 2009. Mantel’s fictional history of Thomas Cromwell and his rise to power in Henry VIII’s court is based on a substantial, years-long study of the Tudor period.

Rylance played Cromwell in the 2015 BBC drama, while Lewis played Henry VIII. The BAFTA-winning and Emmy-nominated drama, which was broadcast on PBS’s “Masterpiece” in the United States, was also the breakthrough role for “The Crown” actor Claire Foy, who played Anne Boleyn.

The sequel to “Wolf Hall,” “Bring Up the Bodies,” won the 2012 Man Booker Prize, while the writer’s most recent work, “The Mirror and the Light,” was longlisted for the award.

Mantel was appointed a Commander of the British Empire in 2006 and a dame in 2014. McEwen, her husband of over 50 years, has predeceased her. The couple married in 1972 and then divorced for several years before remarrying.

Hilary Mantel, the best-selling author of Wolf Hall, has died at the age of 70.

Dame Hilary Mantel, the Booker Prize-winning author of the Wolf Hall trilogy, has died at the age of 70, according to her publisher HarperCollins.

Mantel is widely recognized as one of the best English-language writers of the twentieth century, having won the Booker Prize twice for Wolf Hall and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, which was also named the 2012 Costa Book of the Year.

The Mirror & the Light, the finale of her pioneering Wolf Hall trilogy, was released in 2020 to widespread critical acclaim, became an instant Sunday Times bestseller, and was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

HarperCollins stated she died “suddenly yet quietly” on Thursday, surrounded by close relatives and friends.

When asked earlier this month by the Financial Times whether she believed in an afterlife, Mantel responded she did, but she couldn’t conceive how it would operate. “However,” she added, “the cosmos is not limited by what I can envision.”

Bill Hamilton, Mantel’s agent throughout her career, described working with the writer as “the greatest luxury.” “Her humor, stylistic audacity, creative ambition, and extraordinary historical understanding distinguish her as one of our time’s best novels.”

“Hilary’s emails were peppered with bon mots and humor as she surveyed the world with gusto, seized on the lazy or stupid, and nailed brutality and prejudice,” he wrote. “There was always a faint atmosphere of otherworldliness about her since she saw and felt things that we regular mortals didn’t, yet when she saw the necessity for conflict, she would courageously go into combat.”

The Wolf Hall trilogy has sold over five million books worldwide and has been translated into 41 different languages. The Wolf Hall Picture Book, a photographic book by Mantel and co-authors Ben Miles and George Miles, was released earlier this month by HarperCollins.

Throughout her adult life, the author suffered from chronic sickness, including a severe case of endometriosis for which surgery rendered her infertile. “Sometimes people attempt to convince me that it has made me a better writer in some manner, or that it has allowed me to keep the world at away. But I’d rather deal with the world than deal with the anguish and uncertainty that comes with it,” she told the New York Times in 2012.

Mantel was born on July 6, 1952, in Glossop, Derbyshire. She went on to work as a social work assistant at a geriatric hospital after studying law at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University. In 1972, Mantel married geologist Gerald McEwan. After divorcing in 1981, the pair remarried in 1982. She began writing a novel on the French Revolution in 1974, which was released in 1992 under the title A Place of Greater Safety. Mantel and her husband relocated to Botswana in 1977 and lived there for five years. They later spent four years in Saudi Arabia before returning to the UK in the mid-1980s.

Mantel wrote 17 outstanding works, including the novels Every Day Is Mother’s Day, Vacant Possession, Beyond Black, and Giving.

She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1990, a CBE in 2006, and a DBE in 2014.

In 2013, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies were adapted into a Royal Shakespeare Company stage performance, in which the author was heavily involved. The Mirror & the Light was produced in London’s Gielgud Theatre in 2021, adapted by Mantel and starring actor Ben Miles.

Following Mantel’s passing, many people paid respect to her on Twitter. Damian Barr, a writer, and broadcaster, described her death as “such a loss.”

“With each book, she revolutionized what words can achieve,” he said on Twitter, adding, “She’s the only person I’ve ever interviewed who speaks in entire, faultless paragraphs.” I can’t believe she won’t write another book for us.”

“It is hard to overestimate the impact of the literary legacy Hilary Mantel leaves behind,” said Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon. Her superb Wolf Hall trilogy was the pinnacle of an already impressive collection of work. “May you rest in peace.”

Nicholas Pearson, Mantel’s long-term editor, described her passing as “devastating.”

“Hilary had a unique perspective on the world, which she dissected and disclosed in both her current and historical books, each book a fascinating weave of bright language, vivid characters, and astonishing insight.” He described her as “knowing everything.” “She had long been acclaimed by critics, but the Wolf Hall trilogy gave her the wide readership she deserved.”

Mantel was not only extremely brilliant but also “a delight to work with,” according to Pearson. “On a lovely afternoon in Devon last month, I sat with her and we spoke eagerly about the new novel she was working on.” It’s intolerable that we won’t be able to hear any more of her speech.