Hilary Mantel

A sad part of reading is that the writers we read age and eventually die. We, or at least I, feel the pain when we lose our favorites. Even though we don’t know each other, there is still a relationship of sorts when you read and enjoy an author’s writing. I’ve had writers whose books I always read. I waited for each new one to come out, and knowing that there will never be another hurts. I’m not saying it is the same as the loss of a family member or a friend, but maybe it isn’t all that much different.

I’ve lost a lot of favorites, but that is a story for another time. 

Today, I want to talk about a lost writer that I never read.

I read of the death of Hilary Mantel, best known for her novels about Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror & the Light. These three books have been on my mind, but I haven’t gotten to them. I will, I think, but somehow now I’m wishing that I had gotten to them while she was still with us. I can’t really say what difference it makes, but it feels like it matters to me. 

I knew of the Cromwell books, but learned things about Mantel that I didn’t know. I learned how highly regarded she was by other writers. Historian Simon Schama (I have read him), said of her “one of the very greatest of our writers; poetic and profound prose with an incomparable feel for the texture of history.” Keep in mind that this is a historian talking about a writer of historical fiction. 

I learned of other books that I was unaware of.

I learned of her graciousness and the role she played in the lives of other writers. 

Hilary, if I can be so bold, sorry I didn’t read you while you were still with us.

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