Dame Hilary Mantel, the author of Wolf Hall, has died aged 70.
Her agent, AM Heath and HarperCollins said she died “suddenly and peacefully” yesterday, surrounded by close family and friends.
“We are heartbroken at the death of our beloved author, Dame Hilary Mantel, and our thoughts are with her friends and family, especially her husband, Gerald,” said a statement by 4th Estate Books.
“This is a devastating loss and we can only be grateful she left us with such a magnificent body of work.”
Born in Glossop in 1952, she studied law at LSE and Sheffield University before moving to abroad, first to Botswana and then Saudi Arabia.
Returning to the UK in the 1980s, she won the Booker Prize twice, first for Wolf Hall in 2009 and then in 2012 for Bring Up The Bodies.
The books became a hit BBC drama in 2015, with an all-star cast including Mark Rylance, Damien Lewis, Jonathan Pryce and Claire Foy.
