Historical friction
“I wanted to leave the reader feeling that it was a tragedy, but not a disaster”
On the morning of March 9, 2019 – the day that Hilary Mantel would finish writing The Mirror & the Light, the third volume of the trilogy she’d spent 15 years on – she woke up very early and went into her sitting room to find that, during the night, the picture of Henry VIII had fallen off the wall. It wasn’t broken, but the hook had snapped. Thomas Cromwell, meanwhile, despite having been executed on Henry’s orders, was still sitting smugly on the wall.
“I thought, ‘How beautifully appropriate. Thomas Cromwell is the winner, and Henry is just about to commence his own destruction.’ Because after Cromwell, it was to hell in a handcart. And in great good humour, I left him on the skirting board and went up the road to my office and wrote the end of the book.”
When finishing a book, theres always the consideration, says Hilary, of how you want the reader to be affected at the end of it. “I wanted to leave the reader feeling that it was a tragedy, but not a disaster. Cromwell changed England, and he probably did everything that he set out to do. So, although he must have gone to his execution in great distress, I don’t think it would be with regret.”
Meticulously planned, she had left herself with about two hours’ work to do. The earlier volumes, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, had chalked up (among other literary awards) two Booker Prizes, a Royal Shakespeare Company play (which won two Olivier Awards and a Tony), and a TV adaptation (which won three BAFTAs and a Golden Globe). And now the third volume was finished – all 912 pages.
“When my husband came to collect me, I said, ‘It’s done’, and we looked at each other and laughed out loud. It seemed impossible that it could be finished.”
And how did she celebrate?
“I just wanted to sleep. I don’t have any rituals around writing. Strong tea is my greatest vice. So I think it was just a matter of, ‘Put the
