The news of twice Booker-winning author Hilary Mantel's sudden death due to stroke on September 22, 2022 shocked everyone. And now, in a recent memorial service held for the author at Southwark cathedral in England, her literary agent revealed that Mantel was writing a "mashup" about Jane Austen's classics when she died.
"She was having the greatest fun dissecting a literary icon,” Bill Hamilton said, reported The Guardian. He also revealed that Mantel was planning to shift to Ireland, before her death.
In a tribute to Hilary Mantel, her brother Brian recalled how she was a "natural storyteller" as she used to tell him entertaining historical stories in their childhood. In Brian's tribute, which were read on his behalf at the ceremony, he also mentioned that he is the only survivor of their family of five now and so “I now have memories no one else shares."
Attendees of the memorial service celebrated the famous author's life and times by reading tributes to her, reading extracts from her books, and sharing music or pictures of the late author.
During her lifetime, Mantel was nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize four times, out of which she won the award twice. Once for 'Wolf Hall' in 2009, and the other in 2012 for 'Bring Up the Bodies'. She also won the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award for 'Wolf Hall', the 2012 UK Author of the Year-- British Book Awards for 'Bring Up the Bodies', the 2013 David Cohen Prize among others.
The Cromwell-Trilogy is one of her most notable works.
