Hilary Mantel

We are incredibly happy and honoured to welcome Hilary Mantel this year on October 30th. Like the rest of the world, we have been eagerly awaiting the appearance of the last part of her Cromwell trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, which is set to appear next Spring. Mantel spent the better part of fifteen years on Thomas Cromwell, ‘the greatest challenge of my writing life’. While we wait a little longer, there’s no better time to delve into her literary beginnings, and on October 30th, Mantel takes us back to the novel she completed at age twenty-six, A Place of Greater Safety. Focusing on the events of the French Revolution, the parallels with the present are hard to miss, no matter how much the world may have changed since those historic events.

Hilary Mantel writes novels, both contemporary and historical, as well as short stories and essays. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including two Man Booker Prizes, an extraordinary achievement. She was actively involved in the creation of the stage adaptions of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, the first two installments in the Cromwell series. Both books were also adapted into a BBC television series. A documentary on her life and work is in production and set to air on the BBC next year alongside the publication of The Mirror and the Light.

During BorderKitchen Hilary Mantel will be interviewed (in English) by Liddie Austin about her work and this new novel. After the interview, Mantel will be available to sign books, our favourite bookseller De Vries Van Stockum Den Haag is also present with Dutch and English copies of the book.