Her novel about the French Revolution, ‘A Place of Greater Safety’ is an absolute masterpiece, and helped me to understand how frightening and volatile societies are during a period of revolution.

History is fiction,'' Robespierre observes at one point during British writer Mantel's monumental fictive account of the French Revolution, her first work to appear in this country. In her hands, Continue reading »

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Those familiar with Mantel’s works will know that there is likely to be something nasty in the woodshed. In this case, the woodshed is the top floor. Two other families live in the building. Firstly, there are Raji and Yasmin, a Pakistani couple with a young couple. It is not clear what Raji does but he seems to be some sort of fixer for a government minister. He is often travelling and often out late a night at parties. Frances and Yasmin become friends, more because there is little alternative, though they later become friends with Samira, the wife of the Arab man Frances is not allowed to speak to. Both women try to persuade Frances of the benefits of Islam and the advantages of Saudi Arabia, though not with much success. Frances is understandably concerned with the treatment of women and does not accept the justifications offered by Yasmin and Samira. There is a fourth flat in the building, allegedly empty. However, Frances hears footsteps overhead and also hears a woman sobbing. Andrew says that she is imagining it, though others suggest that the Deputy Minister, who allegedly owns the building, may be using it for a love nest. Frances’ investigations indicate that there is more going on than casual sex. Much of the novel speaks about the treatment of women, using a variety of examples -- Frances, native Saudi women, and others -- and the central mystery also revolves around this issue.

Oh, I'm sure he'll be there," she said. Or someone will. Jeff Pollard. At least he'd be a familiar face. "I've got numbers to ring, in case anything goes wrong. And I could take a taxi." Similarly, ''Eight Months on Ghazzah Street'' explores the vagaries of cultural misunderstanding, the excesses of fundamentalism, the insidious workings of greed and parochialism -- a heady brew of significance cleverly spiced with The stoical Frances, not quite the naive protagonist who usually features in fictions of this type, gives little away; even her diary is uninteresting. Everything is withheld. This tightness of control is perhaps the novel's eeriest feature." - Anita Brookner, The Spectator American readers know English writer Mantel as the author of The Giant, O'Brien, A Place of Greater Safety and other critically hailed novels. This work, a twisted romp through the lives of long-time Continue reading »Melbourne, I think. He keeps a place in the Cotswolds though. He's been with Turadup for twenty years. He's a shareholder. Pollard says he's a millionaire. Anyway, he seems very enthusiastic about this building. About the whole scene in Jeddah. He says it's a very stimulating place to work if you're in the construction business." He paused. "I'll tell you what he said exactly." Eight Months on Ghazzah Street centers on the Shores -- Andrew, an engineer who came for the money to be made there, and his wife, Frances, who joins him. She thought of that cheese, that people say French taxi drivers won't let in their cabs. "What, really not?"

A Change of Climate'' opens in England with a chillingly comic scene in which a 10-year-old girl observes the ''housewifely'' suicide attempt of an unfortunate woman whom the girl's compulsively altruistic Pity," he said. "We," he indicated his cohorts, "are stopping at the Marriot. I thought if you'd been a nurse we could have had dinner. Of course, I'm not sure if they let them out nowadays. I think they've got

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I think Hilary Mantel is one of the best British writers of my generation. I’ve read all her books, and they are all wonderfully well written, and as you say, so diverse in subject matter. That would be plain greedy," she said, "having children so that you could get their school fees paid." The apartment building on Ghazzah Street offers some diversion -- and some mystery, as there are sounds coming from a supposedly empty apartment. Andrew was silent. He passed them, one by one. Why, really, should she share his vision of their future? She had come to Africa at her own behest, a single woman, one of the few recruited for her line of work. She had lived alone before they met; for three nights in succession, he had sat by himself, seemingly disconsolate, on a corner stool in the bar of an expatriate club, not even looking her way, but concentrating hard; until she had asked him to go home with her. She had fed her dog, and then cooked eggs for them, and asked him what he wanted out of life. Later, in the sagging double bed with which her government bungalow was furnished, he had lain awake while she slept, wishing furiously for her to act and understand; and although it had taken a little time to work, within a matter of weeks she had turned to him and said, "We could get married if that's what you want."