Hilary Mantel, the bestselling author, gave fans a tantalising insight into the plot of the concluding novel in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy as she accepted a prestigious award last night.
The author Hilary Mantel, whose
latest book is Mirror and the Light. Photo: Martin
Pope
Mantel, a double Man Booker Prize winner, told an audience how she intended
to begin and end the third instalment in the series.
The two published books, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies,
have both focused on the life of Thomas Cromwell and the court of Henry VIII
through his eyes.
Speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival yesterday, where she was awarded the
Bodley Medal for outstanding contribution to culture, she told fans the third
instalment Mirror and the Light would overlap slightly with the end of
the second.
Beginning with Cromwell on the scaffold, shortly after Anne Boleyn has been
executed, she disclosed it would start: "Once the Queen has been five minutes
dead he walks away."
The book, which is still being written in between Mantel's other commitments
to a BBC series and Royal Shakespeare Company productions, will symbolically
close where the series began.
Wolf Hall opens with a 15-year-old Cromwell lying on the ground in a
pool of his own blood, willing himself to "get up" after being beaten by his
father. Mirror and the Light will end in similar fashion with his death,
she disclosed.
"His consciousness recedes and ebbs away," Mantel said. "And we will be back at the beginning.
"We will be back with a man on the ground in his own blood, saying to himself 'get up, get up''."
Mantel, who has also won the Costa book award, gave the hints last night as she accepted the Bodley Medal at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford.
The award, named for a donor to the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library, is intended to celebrate "the eternity of literature, the written word and, by extension, libraries."
"Nothing could mean more to me," Mantel said.
"His consciousness recedes and ebbs away," Mantel said. "And we will be back at the beginning.
"We will be back with a man on the ground in his own blood, saying to himself 'get up, get up''."
Mantel, who has also won the Costa book award, gave the hints last night as she accepted the Bodley Medal at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford.
The award, named for a donor to the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library, is intended to celebrate "the eternity of literature, the written word and, by extension, libraries."
"Nothing could mean more to me," Mantel said.
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