(ANSA) - LONDON, SEPTEMBER 23 - Hilary Mantel, successful British writer, fourth author and prima donna able to win the Booker Prize twice, in 2009 and 2012, died at the age of 70: the most prestigious literary recognition of the Kingdom United for English writers around the world.
The news was confirmed on behalf of the family by her publisher.
A trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, a powerful minister of the infamous Henry VIII, gave her popularity above all.
She was also known as a polemicist.
Born on 6 July 1962 in Glossop, graduated in law from Sheffield and also lived in Botswana and Saudi Arabia, she acquired literary fame in the early 2000s, after having made her debut as a critic.
To give her popularity was above all a fictionalized trilogy on the figure of Thomas Cromwell, powerful minister of the infamous Henry VIII who after the Anglican schism was at the forefront in the persecution of Catholics and in pushing the Church of England towards a reform of the Protestant model, before falling in turn. in disgrace and be executed.
Trilogy started with the novel 'Wolf Hall' (Booker in 2009), continued with a sequel entitled 'Anna Bolena, a family question' (Booker in 2012), and concluded in 2020 with 'Lospecchio e la luce': titles published in Italy all by Fazi.
Also committed to political and social issues, Mantel has not escaped even heated controversies over the years, including towards the royal family despite the knighthood and the title of dame received and accepted by the queen.
Like her when she targeted Kate, Prince William's wife, as an artificial model;
her when she declared after Brexit that she wanted to move to Ireland (which later did not happen);
when she said she was dreaming of writing the story of an imaginary killing of Margaret Thatcher;
or when she was accused of propagating old anti-Catholic prejudices in the Kingdom, even though she herself was raised Catholic in a family of partly Irish origins.
(HANDLE).