Hilary Mantel has died

[HelloAvocado]

What terrible news. Rest in peace.

I'm the same. Pre-ordered The Mirror and the Light and haven't been able to face starting it - I don't want the ending I know is coming. RIP Hilary, what outstanding talent.

So sad. An amazingly beautiful writer

Am actually getting increasingly cross now. How dare this happen? She had so much left to say I am sure. It's not that she was improving in quality as she got older, more that everything she wrote was great which means the more she wrote, the better.

Oh dear God my book group will be devastated

What an amazing talent she was and no age at all

I hope she knew how much she was loved by people who really appreciated good writing

I am so shocked and so sorry to hear this, I cannot think of another modern writer who compares to her. So sad. I know that she had suffered from ill health for sometime but still a shock. A great loss to literature

Danton on his way to the guillotine cut that emotionally anaemic Robespierre down to size.
Fabulous book.

Yes A Place of Greater Safety is brilliant.

Love the wolf hall books. She was a great writer

One of the reasons this seems so gutting is that she received recognition and success fairly late for a writer so it feels like 'her time' to enjoy that and build upon it was still ahead of her.

Very sad. So pleased she received the Booker prize twice. My dh loved her and I really liked her.

I know what you mean. I put off reading the last one - when I did read it, I kept feeling the impending doom and finding it quite upsetting.

Hilary was a wonderful writer. So talented. The literary world will miss her.

It's just so sad she has gone and for all the reasons already mentioned. No more writing to love from an absolute master of the craft.

The audible versions read by Ben miles of the Cromwell books are sublime.

A place of Greater Safety is totally brilliant.

I found the mirror and the light devestating to read, the inevitable pull to the ending is almost unbearable.

“In 2009, a lady came to a conference we had at Hampton C, about the life of HVIII. She sat quietly at the back making notes. She was reputed to be a novelist. I did not know then that a goddess was walking among us.”

(Lucy Worsley on twitter earlier).

I’m so gutted that we’ll never have another novel from HM, but at least we have the ones she did write.

Very sad , she was a brilliant writer.

So sad, I loved Wolf Hall so much . I am going to have another try with a Place of Greater Safety. I found it a bit hard to get into but I'm sure it will be very much worth it.

Like a lot of others, I really enjoyed Wolf Hall Trilogy. I listened to BUTB as an audio book, a wonderful experience too. I saw some interviews too when she spoke about her life, upbringing, attitudes to various political issues, etc. A very interesting person and a writer I'll miss.

May she rest in peace, gone too soon.

I wonder how many people have learnt about the Tudor era as a result of her novels.

Very sad. She was a genius.

I was shocked to see this on Instagram. May she rest in peace.

That's sad news. It's so young too.

Oh that's awful news. She was very talented and I enjoyed listening to her talk about the writing process.

Very sad, such a loss

Galarunner, I was the same when I first tried APOGS, tried again another time and really got into it. It's definitely worth trying again, such brilliantly-drawn characters.

Thanks Emma. Her first Reith lecture is on Radio 4 tonight at 9pm. The next three are available to download on Sounds. I'm not sure about the fifth and final lecture, which was a Q&A.