Hilary Mantel: Experiments in Love

Hilary Mantel's sudden death in 2022 at the age of 70 shocked the literary world and fans of her Wolf Hall Trilogy, which was a publishing phenomenon. In this wide-ranging conversation recorded in Toronto in 1997, Mantel's best-known works were yet to come and as Randy Boyagoda notes in the introduction, you as a listener wish you could reach in and tell her that her peak as a writer still lay in the future. With an excellent host at the helm, Canadian writer Rosemary Sullivan, this lovely conversation gives a real sense of what shaped Hilary Mantel's approach to writing, her unique and complex characters and the thoughtful ways she blends research with good old-fashioned storytelling.