The Booker prize-winning author of the Wolf Hall trilogy, Dame Hilary Mantel, has died aged 70, her publisher HarperCollins has confirmed.
Mantel was regarded as one of the greatest English-language novelists of this century, winning the Booker Prize twice, for Wolf Hall and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, which also won the 2012 Costa book of the year.
The conclusion to her groundbreaking Wolf Hall trilogy, The Mirror & the Light, was published in 2020 to huge critical acclaim, became an instant Sunday Times bestseller and was longlisted for the Booker prize.
HarperCollins confirmed she had died on Thursday “suddenly yet peacefully”, surrounded by close family and friends.
To date the Wolf Hall trilogy has sold more than five million copies worldwide and has been translated into 41 languages
The author experienced chronic illness throughout her adult life, having a severe form of endometriosis, surgery for which left her unable to have children.
In total, Mantel published 17 acclaimed books including the novels Every Day Is Mother’s Day, Vacant Possession, Beyond Black and her memoir Giving Up the Ghost.