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Original poster

Help! I need an intelligent question to ask...

33 replies

MonkeyGoneToHeaven · 19/09/2013 18:21

Hilary Mantel! I am going to a talk she is giving tomorrow and as DH is helping to organise, I may (please, please, please God) get to meet her. I expect we will be able to ask questions after the talk (about her new book) and if I do meet her 'properly' afterwards I would like to say something that doesn't make me look a complete lemon.

So, any suggestions for questions about her work, and also general chit chat? I'd like to ask her who in current public life she thinks most resemble Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn, but I bet she won't answer that one!

If I do meet her, I'll report back...

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AlansCatalanCat · 23/09/2013 12:14

HM couldn't come to the drinks party as planned due to health issues

She probably read this thread. Wink

TunipTheUnconquerable · 23/09/2013 10:01

That's understandable. Howard did play his part with enormous relish.

Original poster
MonkeyGoneToHeaven · 22/09/2013 20:39

I don't think HM can forgive Howard for his role in Cromwell's downfall.

TM&TL is supposed to be 2014, but HM said that she is making slow progress. She said, interestingly, that she doesn't write in a linear way - i.e. she can't say, 'I'm up to 1530' or whenever it is. Rather, she has files of papers, and scenes written, and then it all comes together in the end into a book.

There was a cameraman there filming the whole thing, so I am wondering if it might appear on her publisher's website.

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TunipTheUnconquerable · 22/09/2013 15:51

Oh WHY doesn't she identify with Howard? How can she not if she's read his letters, which she MUST have done? (I know he's evil but he is also drily funny and so self-centred that he's easy peasy to get.)

Can't wait for The Mirror And The Light. Is it 2014?

Original poster
MonkeyGoneToHeaven · 22/09/2013 11:31

Quick update - HM couldn't come to the drinks party as planned due to health issues Sad so I didn't get to meet her. Her talk was spellbinding though and she read two long-ish passages from The Mirror and the Light.

Someone in the audience (not me!) asked her with whom she most identified in WH and BUTB and she said it was a beautiful question and that she identified with all of them, except Gardiner and Thomas Howard.

The questions asked by the audience were so well-prepared and she answered so eloquently and thoughtfully that I didn't have the nerve to ask about the sexiness of Cromwell.

Oh, and she got the giggles during one of her readings and had to take a break to compose herself before she could carry on, which made me like her even more.

I also got mistaken for Rachel Cooke and someone told me they 'loved my session last night' Wink.

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TunipTheUnconquerable · 20/09/2013 14:42
Grin

In the loos....

Original poster
MonkeyGoneToHeaven · 20/09/2013 14:41

If I manage to speak to her without too many other people there I will ask her about sexy Cromwell. I'm not asking her in front of the whole audience!

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TunipTheUnconquerable · 20/09/2013 12:53

'if you were out with him he would know how to properly order from the wine menu, but also be able to kick the shit out of any wannabe footpad on the way home.'

Ha ha, yes. Also he wouldn't get overcharged but if they tried to he would deal with it without making an embarrassing scene.

TunipTheUnconquerable · 20/09/2013 12:51

Bearing in mind LaQ's posts, I would REALLY like to know (PLEASE ask her this if you can!): Did she MEAN him to be that sexy or did he just come out that way?

I can kind of imagine her giggling to herself at the idea of taking one of the most generally disliked and unattractive figures of the Tudor court and making all these women fall in love with him. But equally maybe the whole process was just subconscious - I would love to know how consciously she did it.

maillotjaune · 20/09/2013 09:55

As I loved A Place of Greater Safety as well I might ask: Cromwell or Danton?

Waswondering · 19/09/2013 22:28

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LaQueenForADay · 19/09/2013 22:24

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Original poster
MonkeyGoneToHeaven · 19/09/2013 22:20

Jux I can see myself being torn apart by Mantel fans if I ask that. Or at least, given a solid shunning. Anyway, I think she's great.

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Jux · 19/09/2013 22:18

It has been suggested that her winning the MB twice is an indication of the falling standards. Does she agree?

How does she feel about it being opened up to US authors?

Personally, I think she's shit, so would say yes to the first.

TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/09/2013 22:17

Yes, the fact that she makes him physically powerful as well as politically. And the vulnerability, definitely, and self-control. It's far sexier that he turns down Mary Boleyn than it would be if he'd gone for her. Refusing beautiful women is always sexy. Attractive detectives do it a lot (eg Inspector Morse - not fanciable to our generation but was to older people).

EsTutMirLeid · 19/09/2013 22:13

Can you ask her why she can't punctuate?!

Original poster
MonkeyGoneToHeaven · 19/09/2013 22:11

LaQueen I reckon it's the combination of strength and power and the vulnerability of Crommers which make him so attractive. He can look after himself (all that soldiering) as well as being jolly clever, and he adored his family. And he turned down Mary Boleyn when she threw herself at him, very sensibly as it turned out.

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TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/09/2013 22:07

Good question LaQ.
I think it's a combination of him being tremendously powerful, and having that ability that very charming people have in RL of making you feel like they are focused completely on you.

TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/09/2013 22:05

I'm not convinced Crom was really as lovely or More as horrible as Mantel paints them.
Yes yes I know More burned heretics, but it's just what people did in those days....

(Also, Mantel just takes all the stories and rumours about More and presents them as if they're true, which she's perfectly allowed to do, but it doesn't mean they were.)

LaQueenForADay · 19/09/2013 22:00

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LaQueenForADay · 19/09/2013 21:59

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Original poster
MonkeyGoneToHeaven · 19/09/2013 21:58

Turnip - horrible choice!

Marry Wolsey

Shag Howard (Cromwell if I'm allowed)

Dump More

Ugh

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Original poster
MonkeyGoneToHeaven · 19/09/2013 21:52

Oh thank you, some good ideas here! I think I saw Hilary a few months ago in a park (she lives locally) and I recognised her but didn't twig that it was her until afterwards, and I smiled in a vague 'I recognise you' way and she gave me a nice smile back. So I think that she's pretty friendly.

She's obviously a very thoughtful person and must have a great deal of empathy to put herself in someone else's shoes so convincingly. I just am rather in awe of that amount of talent. Sometimes I would look up from Wolf Hall or Bring Up the Bodies and feel as if I'd been time travelling.

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TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/09/2013 21:29

Also get her to play 'shag, marry or dump' with the following: Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Howard 3rd Duke of Norfolk.
(But not Thomas Cromwell because that would be too easy.)

TunipTheUnconquerable · 19/09/2013 21:27

Ask her if she watched The White Queen.

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