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A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing
THE FINAL BOOK FROM ONE OF OUR GREATEST WRITERS
In addition to her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel contributed for years to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. “Ink is a generative fluid,� she explains. “If you don’t mean your words to breed consequences, don’t write at all.� A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades.
Her subjects are wide-ranging, sharply observed, and beautifully rendered. She discusses nationalism and her own sense of belonging; our dream life popping into our conscious life; the mythic legacy of Princess Diana; the many themes that feed into her novels—revolutionary France, psychics, Tudor England; and other novelists, from Jane Austen to V.S. Naipaul. She writes about her father and the man who replaced him; she writes fiercely and heartbreakingly about the battles with her health that she endured as a young woman, and the stifling years she found herself living in Saudi Arabia. Here, too, is her legendary essay “Royal Bodies,� on our endless fascination with the current royal family.
From her unusual childhood to her all-consuming interest in Thomas Cromwell that grew into the Wolf Hall trilogy, A Memoir of My Former Self reveals the shape of Hilary Mantel’s life in her own luminous words, through “messages from people I used to be.� Filled with her singular wit and wisdom, it is essential reading from one of our greatest writers.
In addition to her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel contributed for years to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. “Ink is a generative fluid,� she explains. “If you don’t mean your words to breed consequences, don’t write at all.� A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades.
Her subjects are wide-ranging, sharply observed, and beautifully rendered. She discusses nationalism and her own sense of belonging; our dream life popping into our conscious life; the mythic legacy of Princess Diana; the many themes that feed into her novels—revolutionary France, psychics, Tudor England; and other novelists, from Jane Austen to V.S. Naipaul. She writes about her father and the man who replaced him; she writes fiercely and heartbreakingly about the battles with her health that she endured as a young woman, and the stifling years she found herself living in Saudi Arabia. Here, too, is her legendary essay “Royal Bodies,� on our endless fascination with the current royal family.
From her unusual childhood to her all-consuming interest in Thomas Cromwell that grew into the Wolf Hall trilogy, A Memoir of My Former Self reveals the shape of Hilary Mantel’s life in her own luminous words, through “messages from people I used to be.� Filled with her singular wit and wisdom, it is essential reading from one of our greatest writers.
419 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 24, 2023
306 people are currently reading
4,286 people want to read
About the author
Hilary Mantel
111books7,624followersHilary Mantel was the bestselling author of many novels including Wolf Hall, which won the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Bring Up the Bodies, Book Two of the Wolf Hall Trilogy, was also awarded the Man Booker Prize and the Costa Book Award. She also wrote A Change of Climate, A Place of Greater Safety, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, An Experiment in Love, The Giant, O'Brien, Fludd, Beyond Black, Every Day Is Mother's Day, Vacant Possession, and a memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. Mantel was the winner of the Hawthornden Prize, and her reviews and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 167 reviews
January 12, 2024
This was absolutely awesome. It was like reading 20 different non-fiction books, each essay, each transcript of a talk, each review was like a different book entirely. Her Reith lectures with a highlight for me, but her mind sparkles through every single piece, and the writing , oh the writing.
April 19, 2024
Indrukwekkend rijk inkijkje in de keuken van de auteur van o.a. de veelbesproken, tweemaal met de Booker bekroonde Cromwell-trilogie. Hilary Mantels pen is helder en scherp. De essays over haar/het schrijverschap vertrekken telkens van welgekozen invalshoeken en bouwen zich perfect op. Ze windt er geen doekjes rond: het metier van schrijver is een hondenstiel waar niemand zou voor tekenen, hoewel het maar al te vaak geromantiseerd wordt. Het neemt een wezenlijk deel van je leven in beslag en zadelt je o.a. op met constante keuzes die van levensbelang lijken. En als je zoals Mantel dan ook nog historische fictie schrijft, maak je de boel er alleen maar complexer op en moet je jezelf dubbel verantwoorden voor wat je op papier hebt gezet. Maar we zijn nu eenmaal een soort die van en om verhalen leeft, aldus de ons te vroeg ontvallen auteur.
Na de 14 in tijd en thema's uiteenlopende essays volgt de neerslag van haar 'Reith lezingen', vier langere, ijzersterke stukken die handelen over het schrijven van historische fictie en een al even interessant vijfde en laatste hoofdstuk waarin Hilary Mantel onder de titel 'Bewerking' haar ervaring en oordeel over verfilmingen en theater beschrijft. Heel leerrijk en verhelderend. Het inhoudelijke niveau van de 'Reith lezingen' evenaart dat van , voor mij nog altijd een van de topprestaties qua 'schrijvers over hun ambacht'-literatuur. In tegenstelling tot wat Annelies Beck in haar voorwoord beweert, vind ik dit dan ook wél degelijk een boek dat als handleiding voor schrijvers kan dienen. Of tenminste voor schrijvers die zichzelf en hun onmogelijke vak ernstig willen nemen.
Ik las nog geen enkele roman van haar, maar ben nu meer dan getriggerd om asap haar al veel te lang uitgestelde Cromwell-trilogie aan te vatten. Al ben ik intussen blij dat ik eerst haar interne keukengeheimen heb mogen lezen.
Na de 14 in tijd en thema's uiteenlopende essays volgt de neerslag van haar 'Reith lezingen', vier langere, ijzersterke stukken die handelen over het schrijven van historische fictie en een al even interessant vijfde en laatste hoofdstuk waarin Hilary Mantel onder de titel 'Bewerking' haar ervaring en oordeel over verfilmingen en theater beschrijft. Heel leerrijk en verhelderend. Het inhoudelijke niveau van de 'Reith lezingen' evenaart dat van , voor mij nog altijd een van de topprestaties qua 'schrijvers over hun ambacht'-literatuur. In tegenstelling tot wat Annelies Beck in haar voorwoord beweert, vind ik dit dan ook wél degelijk een boek dat als handleiding voor schrijvers kan dienen. Of tenminste voor schrijvers die zichzelf en hun onmogelijke vak ernstig willen nemen.
Ik las nog geen enkele roman van haar, maar ben nu meer dan getriggerd om asap haar al veel te lang uitgestelde Cromwell-trilogie aan te vatten. Al ben ik intussen blij dat ik eerst haar interne keukengeheimen heb mogen lezen.
February 14, 2024
Review to come.
A book to own and revisit.
A book to own and revisit.
October 20, 2023
“The story of Hilary Mantel is scattered throughout her novels. But in her journalism and essays a full and exhilarating self-portrait emerges: she isn’t afraid to lay herself bare. This book is organised with that in mind � a patchwork of a life revealing itself.� - from Introduction.
My thanks to W.F. Howes Ltd. for a review copy via NetGalley of the unabridged audiobook edition of ‘A Memoir of My Former Self and Other Writings� by Hilary Mantel; edited and introduced by Nicholas Pearson.
The audiobook is read by eight actors and authors. These were Anne Enright, Aurora Dawson Hunte, Ben Miles, Bill Hamilton, Jane Wymark, Lydia Leonard, Nicholas Pearson, and Sarah Waters. As I am a longtime admirer of Hilary Mantel, I also purchased its hardback edition.
This is a posthumous collection of Dame Hilary Mantel’s short nonfiction writings including newspaper articles, film reviews, and her Reith lectures. With the film reviews I was especially impressed with her ability to distill the essence of the film with insight and great wit.
She writes on a variety of topics including an insightful piece on the legacy of Princess Diana.
Her five Reith lectures, broadcast in 2017, focuses on historical fiction, including what she describes as the contract between reader and novelist.
In them she states something that has always been important to me as a reader of historical fiction: that the characters will abide by the “ethical framework of their day�, which includes their religious experiences. She also shares how she came to write her Wolf Hall Trilogy.
The article ‘The Joys of Stationery� totally appealed to me as I could relate to the excitement of buying new notebooks. She also shares stories of her own life, including her experiences of living in Saudi Arabia, her childhood memories, and her illnesses.
With respect to the narration, it felt a little odd to have eight readers and clearly some were more experienced than others. While it didn’t detract from my enjoyment, I feel that having just one or two voice actors would have allowed for a better flow.
Overall, ‘A Memoir of My Former Self and Other Writings� was a fascinating collection that sparkled throughout with Mantel’s fierce intelligence and her compassionate soul. She is missed.
Highly recommended.
My thanks to W.F. Howes Ltd. for a review copy via NetGalley of the unabridged audiobook edition of ‘A Memoir of My Former Self and Other Writings� by Hilary Mantel; edited and introduced by Nicholas Pearson.
The audiobook is read by eight actors and authors. These were Anne Enright, Aurora Dawson Hunte, Ben Miles, Bill Hamilton, Jane Wymark, Lydia Leonard, Nicholas Pearson, and Sarah Waters. As I am a longtime admirer of Hilary Mantel, I also purchased its hardback edition.
This is a posthumous collection of Dame Hilary Mantel’s short nonfiction writings including newspaper articles, film reviews, and her Reith lectures. With the film reviews I was especially impressed with her ability to distill the essence of the film with insight and great wit.
She writes on a variety of topics including an insightful piece on the legacy of Princess Diana.
Her five Reith lectures, broadcast in 2017, focuses on historical fiction, including what she describes as the contract between reader and novelist.
In them she states something that has always been important to me as a reader of historical fiction: that the characters will abide by the “ethical framework of their day�, which includes their religious experiences. She also shares how she came to write her Wolf Hall Trilogy.
The article ‘The Joys of Stationery� totally appealed to me as I could relate to the excitement of buying new notebooks. She also shares stories of her own life, including her experiences of living in Saudi Arabia, her childhood memories, and her illnesses.
With respect to the narration, it felt a little odd to have eight readers and clearly some were more experienced than others. While it didn’t detract from my enjoyment, I feel that having just one or two voice actors would have allowed for a better flow.
Overall, ‘A Memoir of My Former Self and Other Writings� was a fascinating collection that sparkled throughout with Mantel’s fierce intelligence and her compassionate soul. She is missed.
Highly recommended.
January 17, 2024
I love Hilary Mantel, and this collection of essays (some of which I had previously read) is a reminder of how perceptive and skilled a writer she is. Because I've read the Wolf Hall novels and A Place Of Greater Safety, I was most fascinated by the essays that focused on the subjects of those books. She's equally good, though, on British royalty in the present day, especially on Diana. Her wit and her ability to shape and control a sentence make every page show forth some delight. She cites it so many times that I'll going to try to sample Religion and the Decline of Magic. Her movie reviews, although I have seen none of the movies, are in many cases hilarious, and her very short takedown of the famous TV series The Tudors, embedded in an essay on her books, is hilarious too. Not at all hilarious is her evisceration of American capital punishment. This book is a good introduction for anyone who was captivated by Wolf Hall and needs to know more about its creator. Alas for the novels she will never write.
September 3, 2024
This book is a master class in writing. I wish she had lived to 90 and never retired.
January 22, 2024
This book presents a selection of Hilary Mantel’s writings outside of novels. With her immense fame for the Wolf Hall trilogy it is easy to forget that such fame came late in her life. Although she has been writing novels for a long time much of her work was writing book and film reviews and opinion pieces for all sorts of journals, magazines and newspapers.
What comes through these pieces is a sense of her brilliance as a writer - there are pieces here which I think any writer would be proud of; the sharpness of her intellect - her insights are at times wonderful; combined with this odd humanness and yet also an elitism. Not the elitism of class, but that of the cultured, intellectual and creative. It is not unpleasant but it is judgemental.
Some pieces here are wonderful, but this is an odd collection at times. Reading old film reviews for example feels like reading an old newspaper. The book reviews are better and tempted me to look out authors I am unfamiliar with. The opinion pieces are variable - some good, some not so. The autobiographical parts are mostly interesting.
Overall it is very good, but I suspect if you were not already a fan or knowledgable about her it might just all seem a bit random. For me though, very good with occasionally brilliant parts.
What comes through these pieces is a sense of her brilliance as a writer - there are pieces here which I think any writer would be proud of; the sharpness of her intellect - her insights are at times wonderful; combined with this odd humanness and yet also an elitism. Not the elitism of class, but that of the cultured, intellectual and creative. It is not unpleasant but it is judgemental.
Some pieces here are wonderful, but this is an odd collection at times. Reading old film reviews for example feels like reading an old newspaper. The book reviews are better and tempted me to look out authors I am unfamiliar with. The opinion pieces are variable - some good, some not so. The autobiographical parts are mostly interesting.
Overall it is very good, but I suspect if you were not already a fan or knowledgable about her it might just all seem a bit random. For me though, very good with occasionally brilliant parts.
September 1, 2024
Mantel weet met lichte humor en een fijne verteltrant de alledaagsheid van het schrijven (het uitstelgedrag, de materiaalobsessies, het plezante ploeteren) én de aandachtspunten voor de beginnende schrijver van (historische) fictie op een heel heldere manier te formuleren. Heel herkenbaar. En bruikbaar voor mijn lessen.
March 2, 2025
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4.5 stars
Such an insightful enjoyable read. One to read again. You can always find wisdom and inspiration within these pages. Essays, movie and book reviews, and oh those wonderful Reith lectures - I could hear her voice in my head as I read them. Years ago I enjoyed her memoir Giving Up the Ghost and last year the Cromwell trilogy. I think a deep dive into all her works is a good plan.
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October 24, 2023
Memoirs are usually quite subjective to a reader's taste. This one started with instances from Hilary's life (the childhood writing, Dubai phase and returning to Europe). However later on the topics varied chapter by chapter, which to me felt like reading essays on a plethora of topics.
Her writing is easily distinguishable from the other details that have been added by the memoirist. Hilary's style of writing (which has been top-notch) feels familiar in the book, but then there are spaces within the book where certain topics are discussed at length and then abruptly end.
The part where stories of her actual life are discussed felt great while reading. However, I couldn't bring myself to enjoy the other random information pieces discussed in the book, a lot of them were simply opinions on important topics. Overall it felt like all her incomplete writings had been clubbed together in a single title.
Genre: #memoir #nonfiction
Thank you @netgalley @wfhowes for the digital ARC
P.S. I hoped the person who compiled these parts together would have put more thought into how this would make sense to a first-time reader. After all, such a celebrated writer, whom we lost in 2022, deserves nothing less than perfect when it comes to the story of her life.
#AMemoirofMyFormerSelfandOtherWritings #NetGalley #HilaryMantel
Her writing is easily distinguishable from the other details that have been added by the memoirist. Hilary's style of writing (which has been top-notch) feels familiar in the book, but then there are spaces within the book where certain topics are discussed at length and then abruptly end.
The part where stories of her actual life are discussed felt great while reading. However, I couldn't bring myself to enjoy the other random information pieces discussed in the book, a lot of them were simply opinions on important topics. Overall it felt like all her incomplete writings had been clubbed together in a single title.
Genre: #memoir #nonfiction
Thank you @netgalley @wfhowes for the digital ARC
P.S. I hoped the person who compiled these parts together would have put more thought into how this would make sense to a first-time reader. After all, such a celebrated writer, whom we lost in 2022, deserves nothing less than perfect when it comes to the story of her life.
#AMemoirofMyFormerSelfandOtherWritings #NetGalley #HilaryMantel
February 22, 2024
A must for an unconditional fan of Hilary Mantel like me. It's a selection of her journalism and essays divided into selections of related pieces. The first section is recollections of her life with a few meditative pieces on other subjects. Wonderful, especially the pieces on living in the Middle East, and the essay on Princess Diana -- she is brilliant on the royal family and its place in British culture.
The second section, film reviews (I hadn't known she reviewed films for the Spectator was less interesting, only because I hadn't seen a number of the films. It was amusing to learn that she loved Robocop though. Then essays on writers, always interesting, and her wonderful Reith lectures from 2017 (though I recommend listening to these if you can, to hear her voice and also the magisterial way she handles questions at the end). The final section consists of long form essays on various subjects. Who knew she was a perfume geek? A great one about Elizabeth Jane Howard, reflections on writing, and a group on writing about Tudor times.
She was truly a great British novelist, but her non-fiction shows you another side of her: funny, acerbic, sharp-eyed. A treasure, to be spun out a bit at a time.
The second section, film reviews (I hadn't known she reviewed films for the Spectator was less interesting, only because I hadn't seen a number of the films. It was amusing to learn that she loved Robocop though. Then essays on writers, always interesting, and her wonderful Reith lectures from 2017 (though I recommend listening to these if you can, to hear her voice and also the magisterial way she handles questions at the end). The final section consists of long form essays on various subjects. Who knew she was a perfume geek? A great one about Elizabeth Jane Howard, reflections on writing, and a group on writing about Tudor times.
She was truly a great British novelist, but her non-fiction shows you another side of her: funny, acerbic, sharp-eyed. A treasure, to be spun out a bit at a time.
March 27, 2024
To Hilary Mantel, history is alive at this very moment. It is almost a mystical process of entering a lost world and bringing it back to life. While reading this book I decided to also read Wolf Hall, Hilary's acclaimed novel of the English Tudors during the sixteenth century. The broad scope of the novel had seemed a bit intimidating but having read this compilation, I want to explore more of her work.
The essays in the book are varied featuring autobiographical sketches, book reviews, movie reviews, speeches given to a group of writers, the British royal family, reflections of life and death. All are imbued with the unique perspective of a skilled writer with a boundless imagination.
The essays in the book are varied featuring autobiographical sketches, book reviews, movie reviews, speeches given to a group of writers, the British royal family, reflections of life and death. All are imbued with the unique perspective of a skilled writer with a boundless imagination.
September 20, 2024
When the beloved English author Hilary Mantel died unexpectedly in 2022, the loss was compounded by the realisation that there would be no more books. So I was startled when I spied A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing on the New Books shelf at the library. But it took only a millisecond to recover and to pounce on it before someone beat me to it!
The book is a collection of pieces from various publications, including essays, film reviews from Spectator and the New York Review of Books; journalism from The Guardian,and her wonderful BBC Reith Lectures from 2017.As editor Nicholas Pearson explains in a Note at the beginning of the book, these diverse pieces from Hilary Mantel's oeuvre subsidised the writing she really wanted to do � fiction...
In the Reith Lectures she tackles the theme of historical fiction because she is interested in memory, personal and collective.These days historical fiction doesn't just mean historical romance. It sits alongside the work of historians —not offering an alternative truth, or even a supplementary truth, but offering insight.
There were five lectures:
The Day is for Leaving
The Iron Maiden
Silence Grips the Town
Can These Bones Live?
Adaptation, in which she explores the pros and cons of stage and screen compared to story.
In The Day is for Leavingshe unpacks the similarities and differences between history and historical fiction.
By her own admission, her family history is full of nobodies and she knows little about her ancestors. But her illiterate grandmother Catherine O'Shea who had ten children had a role in the community � she laid out the dead. And so Mantel muses on how humans are the only animals that mourn.
To read the rest of my review please visit
The book is a collection of pieces from various publications, including essays, film reviews from Spectator and the New York Review of Books; journalism from The Guardian,and her wonderful BBC Reith Lectures from 2017.As editor Nicholas Pearson explains in a Note at the beginning of the book, these diverse pieces from Hilary Mantel's oeuvre subsidised the writing she really wanted to do � fiction...
Her early life as a novelist was not an income. The advance for her first novel was £2000. [Every Day Is Mother's Day, 1985] She needed work to subsidise the slow process of writing fiction and it was to the periodicals she turned. She didn't feel qualified to do anything else. Auburon Waugh offered her a piece a month for the Literary Review for £40 a time. She wrote for Alan Ross at the London Magazine,but he paid her even less. (p.xii)
In the Reith Lectures she tackles the theme of historical fiction because she is interested in memory, personal and collective.These days historical fiction doesn't just mean historical romance. It sits alongside the work of historians —not offering an alternative truth, or even a supplementary truth, but offering insight.
There were five lectures:
The Day is for Leaving
The Iron Maiden
Silence Grips the Town
Can These Bones Live?
Adaptation, in which she explores the pros and cons of stage and screen compared to story.
In The Day is for Leavingshe unpacks the similarities and differences between history and historical fiction.
St Augustine says, the dead are invisible, they are not absent. You needn't believe in ghosts to see that's true. We carry the genes and the culture of our ancestors, and what we think about them shapes what we think of ourselves, and how we make of our times and place. Are these good times, bad times, interesting times? We rely on history to tell us. History, and science too, help us put our small lives in context. But if we want to meet the dead looking alive, we turn to art. (p.241)
By her own admission, her family history is full of nobodies and she knows little about her ancestors. But her illiterate grandmother Catherine O'Shea who had ten children had a role in the community � she laid out the dead. And so Mantel muses on how humans are the only animals that mourn.
Commemoration is an active process, and often a contentious one. When we memorialise the dead, we are sometimes desperate for the truth, and sometimes for a comforting illusion. We remember individually, out of grief and need. We remember as a society, with a political agenda � we reach into the past for foundation myths of our tribe, our nation, and found them on glory, or found them on grievance, but we seldom found them on cold facts.
Nations are built on wishful versions of their origins: stories in which our forefathers were giants, of one kind or another. This is how we live in the world: romancing. Once the romance was about aristocratic connections and secret status, the fantasy of being part of an elite. Now the romance is about deprivation, dislocation, about the distance covered between there and here... (p.244)
To read the rest of my review please visit
March 6, 2024
There's so much to say about this collection of essays, reviews and opinion pieces. I made so many notes. There's something here for everyone and only one article I wish I hadn't read (Children Killing Children or some-such. You've been warned). Her take on writing historical fiction is lovely and illuminating. Her mind is prodigious. She left us way too soon.
November 8, 2023
A deeply rewarding listen. Clocking in at over 14 hours of material this is very good value by anyone's reckoning. The breadth of material and variety of subjects that Mantel has written about is somewhat awe inspiring. I started my relationship with Mantel's writing long before Wolf Hall, reading Fludd and then Beyond Black before getting stuck into her historical novels. Even then, A Place of Greater Safety was an astonishingly accomplished novel about the French Revolution before Wolf Hall was even a thought. She was truly a Renaissance woman. She is interesting because she is interested by so many things. I loved the fact that she reviewed Robocop and loved every minute of it. Her travel writing about what it was like to live in Saudi Arabia is properly gripping. There is everything here from the power of a good haircut to the best way to adapt a book for the stage.
Perhaps my only gripe was that I would have much preferred it to be narrated by just one person instead of a multitude of voices. Otherwise it was pure bliss.
Perhaps my only gripe was that I would have much preferred it to be narrated by just one person instead of a multitude of voices. Otherwise it was pure bliss.
April 18, 2024
An excellent collection of essays, a reminder of how much we lost when she died. Her ability to make prose sing is remarkable. And her commitment to the writing life, her passion for words and ideas, is evident on every page. The organizing principles of these essays is not always apparent, but there are riches aplenty to be had. Some of the selections from her years as a film reviewer seemed less than necessary (though I did enjoy her takedown of Wild Orchid), and there's some repetition and overlap, even reused passages, in some of the essays, particularly relating to the royals and her long engagement with the Tudors (though I actually found her reuse of passages for different purposes interesting as an aspect of her writing process). And although a number of essays deal with her own life, this book is in no sense a memoir, despite the misleading title and subtitle. Altogether, a wonderful collection for people who enjoy the essay form or who admire Mantel's work and wish there was more of it to come.
March 12, 2024
Completely essential for anyone who misses Mantel: this collection of non-fiction essays, articles and reviews is another chance to spend time with her unmistakable voice and unique way of seeing the world, and should be grabbed with both hands. Alongside her musings on the death of Princess Diana, Mantel’s own ill health and her experience of domestic life in Saudi Arabia, the book also includes (for the first time in print) her stunning 2017 Reith lectures on the craft of historical fiction and the task of resurrecting those long-dead. The topics drift from reviewing When Harry Met Sally to the challenge of being a female writer, and though this collection was assembled after her death, immersing yourself in her words will still give you that sense of connectedness - that there are considered threads running through all her work, carefully woven by Mantel herself over the decades.
January 1, 2024
After her passing, it was beautiful to see so many people celebrating the power of her words, and her incredible ability to write passionately about almost any topic.
This selection of writings ranges everything from travel and history to her personal meditations on health and who she is. And within these pieces, we see how well-read and travelled she was, often bringing together stories from all corners of the world and historical tales from different centuries to make a point about something else entirely. Her writing is a gift, and it was great to hear her voice again.
I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This selection of writings ranges everything from travel and history to her personal meditations on health and who she is. And within these pieces, we see how well-read and travelled she was, often bringing together stories from all corners of the world and historical tales from different centuries to make a point about something else entirely. Her writing is a gift, and it was great to hear her voice again.
I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
March 14, 2024
My middling rating of this book is in no way a reflection of Mantel's writing style. She was a brilliant stylist.
But I never get on well with these kinds of massive collections of a writer's journalism. If I were to read one piece a day, I would appreciate them so much more than reading more than 400 pages' worth in a few days. It dulls the effect for me, I'm afraid.
I've always been a little intimidated by her Tudor trilogy, but I suppose I really do need to read it. Maybe a winter's holiday deep dive at the end of the year?
But I never get on well with these kinds of massive collections of a writer's journalism. If I were to read one piece a day, I would appreciate them so much more than reading more than 400 pages' worth in a few days. It dulls the effect for me, I'm afraid.
I've always been a little intimidated by her Tudor trilogy, but I suppose I really do need to read it. Maybe a winter's holiday deep dive at the end of the year?
December 17, 2023
Having read several of her novels I was expecting style, erudition, and her acute perspicacity. What I wasn't expecting was quite so much laugh-out-loud humour. Brilliant, just brilliant.
January 20, 2025
5 stars because despite finishing it after I got home from my holidays it kept me gripped "even though" it's "just" a collection of short writings. That's what Hilary Mantel could do. When someone of her skills writes such amazing essays about how they sometimes think they get close to what they're capable of... makes you why should the rest of us bother in the first place!
September 6, 2024
I am sorry to have finished this erudite, witty collection of Hilary Mantel's 'occasional' writings - film reviews, memoir, thoughts on other writers, the ghosts that haunt us (take a bow Princess Diana), the perils of searching for an identity - it is an entirely mixed bag all delivered with her characteristic aplomb, touches of tenderness and, somehow, a sense of deep impermanence. I loved her advice on writing - if you use notebooks, make sure they are perforated. If I am lucky I may find that Hilary is still with me, clacking away in another room, sitting in an ergonomic chair ordered from her favourite stationery catalogue, making sharp asides as she observes the goings on out the window. What a wonder Ms Mantel is.
October 10, 2023
A selection of articles and reviews by Hilary Mantel covering topics such as her experience in, and observations of, Saudi Arabia; school exams; the death penalty; endometriosis; and grief, as well as the hilarious review of the Mickey Rourke film Wild Orchid among others. Also included are her Reith lectures.
Mantel comes across as intelligent, thoughtful and supremely funny.
The audiobook is narrated by a starry cast of actors and authors: Anne Enright, Aurora Dawson Hunte, Ben Miles, Bill Hamilton, Jane Wymark, Lydia Leonard, Nicholas Pearson, Sarah Waters. The actors tend to have clearer diction than the authors.
My thanks to NetGalley and W.F. Howes Ltd for the audio-ARC.
Mantel comes across as intelligent, thoughtful and supremely funny.
The audiobook is narrated by a starry cast of actors and authors: Anne Enright, Aurora Dawson Hunte, Ben Miles, Bill Hamilton, Jane Wymark, Lydia Leonard, Nicholas Pearson, Sarah Waters. The actors tend to have clearer diction than the authors.
My thanks to NetGalley and W.F. Howes Ltd for the audio-ARC.
Want to read
February 24, 2024Looking forward to this - thanks to the heads-up from Sue Lucie !
December 4, 2024
***Audiobook gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction. Audiobook listened as part of NetGalley November 2024***
I have always wanted to read/audiobook , but felt a tad intimidated by it, and I tried years ago and I wasn’t a big fan. I found some of the stories a tad pompous, but as I want to try the Wolf Hall trilogy next year (or attempt to), I decided to try her collection of essays and articles.
I found them really interesting listening and I enjoyed most of the essays and the range of what she wrote (Princess Diana, perfume, ageism, life in Saudi Arabia, her process as a writer, Anne Boleyn and other topics). She also had a humour I wasn’t expecting and I did laugh out loud at several moments within the essays.
Yes, there were times I did find that Mantel was acting high and mighty (which rubbed me up the wrong way) and that while we had several different narrators, one or two always seem to read as if in a rush or in breathless excitement, which felt very out of place when the essay or article is quite heavy and needed time to breathe.
I am really glad I listened to this and I am quite excited to tackle Wolf Hall next year (2025), and it makes me want to relisten to The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher as I wonder if my younger self was a little too harsh in his reaction�
I have always wanted to read/audiobook , but felt a tad intimidated by it, and I tried years ago and I wasn’t a big fan. I found some of the stories a tad pompous, but as I want to try the Wolf Hall trilogy next year (or attempt to), I decided to try her collection of essays and articles.
I found them really interesting listening and I enjoyed most of the essays and the range of what she wrote (Princess Diana, perfume, ageism, life in Saudi Arabia, her process as a writer, Anne Boleyn and other topics). She also had a humour I wasn’t expecting and I did laugh out loud at several moments within the essays.
Yes, there were times I did find that Mantel was acting high and mighty (which rubbed me up the wrong way) and that while we had several different narrators, one or two always seem to read as if in a rush or in breathless excitement, which felt very out of place when the essay or article is quite heavy and needed time to breathe.
I am really glad I listened to this and I am quite excited to tackle Wolf Hall next year (2025), and it makes me want to relisten to The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher as I wonder if my younger self was a little too harsh in his reaction�
June 9, 2024
I discovered Hilary Mantel the year she was awarded the Booker Prize for Wolf Hall. At the time, l was bedridden with very bad flu and yet l was transported to a sumptuous and brutal Tudor England, exploring the individual psychology of a cast of historical personages who were all participants in the political intrigues of the era. At the time l thought l had discovered literary gold. The flu became secondary to the completion of the book, time dissolved and l wondered how, how ever? had l missed this author up until then. So, l have been reading her avidly ever since.
This posthumous collection of nonfiction explains, in essay form, the process of historical writing that finally created the Wolf Hall trilogy. But this book also contains other essays, lectures, varied book and film reviews, along with autobiographical stories. ‘A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing� not only pays homage to the breadth of her writing but also demonstrates the sheer brilliance that is Hilary Mantel. This collection is aptly titled using the prepositional phrase ‘in writing� because her life was an immersion in writing, whether discussing with resolute force her experiences and disillusionment as an expat in Saudi Arabia or the phenomenon of a persona that was Princess Diana. Sadly, and infuriating though was her personal recount of the torturous suffering Mantel endured through endometriosis. Originally misdiagnosed as a psychiatric illness in her early twenties, it culminated in a surgical menopause which not only robbed her of children and interrupted her life but also seemed to become a theme in her writing: the woman’s body as profound, pounded and problematised.
This book is a tribute to a life in writing, of a talent beyond peer, enmeshed in experience with very relatable, human underpinnings. It is also a book to own.
Highly recommended.
This posthumous collection of nonfiction explains, in essay form, the process of historical writing that finally created the Wolf Hall trilogy. But this book also contains other essays, lectures, varied book and film reviews, along with autobiographical stories. ‘A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing� not only pays homage to the breadth of her writing but also demonstrates the sheer brilliance that is Hilary Mantel. This collection is aptly titled using the prepositional phrase ‘in writing� because her life was an immersion in writing, whether discussing with resolute force her experiences and disillusionment as an expat in Saudi Arabia or the phenomenon of a persona that was Princess Diana. Sadly, and infuriating though was her personal recount of the torturous suffering Mantel endured through endometriosis. Originally misdiagnosed as a psychiatric illness in her early twenties, it culminated in a surgical menopause which not only robbed her of children and interrupted her life but also seemed to become a theme in her writing: the woman’s body as profound, pounded and problematised.
This book is a tribute to a life in writing, of a talent beyond peer, enmeshed in experience with very relatable, human underpinnings. It is also a book to own.
Highly recommended.
December 11, 2023
An amazing collection of short stories/essays. can read one at a time and select on it or read through the whole book, whatever your style. I read one at a time and thought about the book that came from that chapter. There was a lot of the real Hilary in there and it was nice getting to know that person, not the author but the woman. The audio version is narrated by a selection of people and is wonderful listening. Thank you #NetGalley for the audiobook to review.
April 15, 2024
I thought a very interesting read. A variety of topics, including the author’s early adulthood and lifelong health struggles.
Great chapters on the meaning of writing historical fiction, how it brings to life a lived experience in the past and that it adds another layer of interpretation on top of historical research.
I highly recommend this book.
Great chapters on the meaning of writing historical fiction, how it brings to life a lived experience in the past and that it adds another layer of interpretation on top of historical research.
I highly recommend this book.
August 26, 2024
“I had not always been lucky, had not always been blessed; but, illness aside, I had a savage and hidden faculty for managing my desire: for slapping and pounding fate, a rickety raw-faced amateur who should never have stepped into the ring with the hard-fisted likes of me.�
November 20, 2023
Disappointment; does nothing Mantel Pieces didn’t do better.
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