The acclaimed writer, who received the prestigious award for two of the books in her historical “Wolf Hall” trilogy, died peacefully on Thursday surrounded by close family and friends, according to her agent.
Mantel was born in Derbyshire, England in 1952. After studying Law for one year at London’s School of Economics, she transferred to Sheffield University and graduated in 1973.
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She was a film critic for the British cultural affairs magazine the Spectator from 1987 to 1991 and published her first novel, “Every Day is Mother’s Day,” in 1985.
But it wasn’t until the publication of her 10th novel, “Wolf Hall,” in 2009 that Mantel became a household name.
Set in Tudor England and centered on the life and times of statesman and chief minister to Henry VIII Thomas Cromwell, “Wolf Hall” won the 2009 Booker Prize.
A 2015 TV adaptation of “Wolf Hall” and “Bring Up the Bodies,” starring Mark Rylance as Cromwell and Damian Lewis as Henry VIII, was nominated for eight Primetime Emmys.
In 2020, eight years after the publication of “Bring Up the Bodies,” the much-anticipated final part in the “Wolf Hall” trilogy, “The Mirror and the Light,” was published.