Sunday 8 November 2009

Hilary Mantel - Author, Author: Unfreezing antique feeling


Wonderful article for the Guardian by Hilary Mantel on the presence of the past in our lives, and how some people are more atuned to the traces of time.

I have been reading enthusiatic reviews and raves about Mantel's latest book, Wolf Hall, winner of the Booker Prize. I am anxious to pick up a copy but poor and bohemian as I am I have to wait until second-hand bookshops quench my thirst or my local libraries have some copies available. I loved Mantel's Beyond Black and Thomas Cromwell is a figure I am intrigued by but know little about, so it should be a great ride.

The article is very unassuming but I think it raises a fine point about writers being in synch with the world in stranger ways than other people. I refuse the notion of writers somehow being "special" but I feel understably mystic about my profession sometimes, or at least about myself - being in the business of painting the world with words is an odd affair, moody, and sometimes we find ourselves weeping over ancient stones like fools. That's what I like about the article.