Biography Hilary Mantel was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, England on 6 July 1952. She studied Law at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University. She was employed as a social worker, and lived in Botswana for five years, followed by four years in Saudi Arabia, before returning to Britain in the mid-1980s. In 1987 she was awarded the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for an article about Jeddah, and she was film critic for The Spectator from 1987 to 1991. Her novels include Eight Months on Ghazzah Street (1988), set in Jeddah; Fludd (1989), set in a mill village in the north of England and winner of the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, the Cheltenham Prize and the Southern Arts Literature Prize; A Place of Greater Safety (1992), an epic account of the events of the French revolution that won the Sunday Express Book of the Year award; A Change of Climate (1994), the story of a missionary couple whose lives are torn apart by the loss of their child; and An Experiment in Love (1995), about the events in the lives of three schoolfriends from the north of England who arrive at London University in 1970, winner of the 1996 Hawthornden Prize.

Her novel The Giant, O'Brien (1998) tells the story of Charles O'Brien who leaves his home in Ireland to make his fortune as a sideshow attraction in London. Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoir (2003), is an autobiography in fiction and non-fiction, taking the reader from early childhood through to the discoveries in adulthood that led her to writing; and Learning to Talk: Short Stories (2003).

Hilary Mantel's novel Beyond Black (2005) tells the story of Alison, a Home Counties psychic, and her assistant, Colette. It was shortlisted for a 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize and for the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction. Her latest novel is Wolf Hall (2009) won the Man Booker Prize.

In 2006 she was also awarded a CBE.

Bibliography

Every Day is Mother's Day   Chatto & Windus, 1985

Vacant Possession   Chatto & Windus, 1986

Eight Months on Ghazzah Street   Viking, 1988

Fludd   Viking, 1989

A Place of Greater Safety   Viking, 1992

A Change of Climate   Viking, 1994

An Experiment in Love   Viking, 1995

The Giant, O'Brien   Fourth Estate, 1998

On Modern British Fiction   (contributor: "No Passes or Documents Are Needed - the Writer at Home in Europe")   Oxford University Press, 2002

Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoir   Fourth Estate, 2003

Learning to Talk: Short Stories   Fourth Estate, 2003

Beyond Black   Fourth Estate, 2005

Wolf Hall   Fourth Estate, 2009

Prizes and awards

1987   Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize

1990   Southern Arts Literature Prize   Fludd

1990   The Cheltenham Prize   Fludd

1990   Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize   Fludd

1992   Sunday Express Book of the Year   A Place of Greater Safety

1996   Hawthornden Prize   An Experiment in Love

2006   CBE

2006   Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book)   (shortlist)   Beyond Black

2006   Orange Prize for Fiction   (shortlist)   Beyond Black

2006   Yorkshire Post Book Award (Book of the Year)   Beyond Black

2009 Man Booker Prize Wolf Hall