Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Hilary Mantel hits back at critics of her Thatcher assassination short story

Author says it would be ‘unconscionable’ to regard such a fictional account as off-limits, as some Tory MPs and rightwing commentators suggest

Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mantel’s short story The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher – August 6th 1983 prompted outrage after it was published online by the Guardian on Friday. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/Guardian
The author Hilary Mantel has delivered a defiant response to criticism from Tory MPs and rightwing commentators of her imagined account of the killing of Margaret Thatcher by an IRA sniper.
Mantel’s new short story, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher – August 6th 1983, prompted outrage after it was published online by the Guardian on Friday.

Mantel, who had anticipated a backlash against the story, said on Monday it would be “unconscionable” to regard such a fictional account as off-limits, as her critics have suggested.

The Daily Telegraph had refused to publish the story even after it paid a substantial sum to secure the exclusive rights.
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