Hilary Mantel’s truly great novel peels back history to explore the rich intersection of individual psychology and wider politics in Tudor England
The Man Booker Prize 2009
Hilary Mantel
Of course it wasn’t just the power of the prize but when Wolf Hall won, Hilary Mantel’s life changed forever – a previously highly-regarded novelist was suddenly a literary juggernaut.
Mantel’s win, with the first instalment of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, came in the face of formidable opposition – two former Booker laureates, A.S. Byatt and J.M. Coetzee, were shortlisted alongside her. Mantel had been a judge herself in 1990 (‘I don’t think I have recovered yet’) so she knew what was involved.
Her novel, with its rich historical weave and narrative immediacy, reconfigured what historical fiction could be. In the flush of victory, she professed herself ‘happily flying through the air’.
Winner The Booker Prize 2009
- By
- Hilary Mantel
- Published by
- 4th Estate
Hilary Mantel’s truly great novel peels back history to explore the rich intersection of individual psychology and wider politics in Tudor England
The shortlist
A.S. Byatt’s vivid and deeply affecting historical fiction is the story of a singular family, played out against the great, rippling tides of the day.
By A.S. Byatt
Sometimes heart-breaking, often funny, Summertime completes J.M.Coetzee’s majestic trilogy of fictionalised memoir, begun with Boyhood and Youth.
By J.M. Coetzee
Based on real events, Adam Foulds’ deeply affecting and brilliantly imagined novel portrays an intense chapter in the life of the poet John Clare.
By Adam Foulds
A unique house becomes the central character in Simon Mawer’s colourful fictional history, which spans 60 tumultuous years of the 20th century.
By Simon Mawer
Sarah Waters’ chilling and vividly rendered ghost story set in postwar Britain, brimming with rich atmosphere and psychological complexity.
By Sarah Waters
