British author Hilary Mantel (70), known for the “Wolf Hall” trilogy, has died.

He garnered huge praise for his Thomas Cromwell trilogy. He transformed the obscure political fixer into a complex and compelling novel character. Cromwell worked his way up to the top minister of the English King Henry VIII and played an important role, among other things, in the division of England from the Roman Catholic Church. Henry VIII is also known as the king who had six wives and had two beheaded. When Cromwell fell out of favor with Henry VIII, he suffered the same fate.

Mantel received the Man Booker Prize for both the first part, “Wolf Hall”, and the second part, “Bring up the body” (translated into Dutch as “The book Henry”). The last part “The mirror and the light” (“The mirror and the light”) appeared in 2020.

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