Browse through the contents pages of Memoir of My Former Self and pick a title that appeals. I did … and A Life of Biggles was the first article I read. It was written in 2009 for The Guardian. It took me back to my school days when I couldn’t get enough of the adventures of James Bigglesworth DSO MC. I now know why Biggles was born in 1899. He had to be just old enough to qualify for service in World War I and not so old that he couldn’t fight in World War II.

W E Johns was the author of the Biggles’ books and Mantel informed her Guardian readers that in 1922 he was in RAF Recruitment. Into his office walked ‘an inferior physical specimen with a strange air of superiority’. It was T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) looking to enlist under an alias.

There are dozens of opinion pieces, short essays and reviews. Some appealed, others less so. Mantel was the film reviewer for The Spectator for a number of years. A few reviews are reprinted in this memoir, including one for her ‘perfect film’: Babette’s Feast.

Hilary Mantel died in September 2022, age 70, after a life affected by her battle with a severe form of endometriosis. It was not diagnosed for many years. Her literary output, considering she was rarely without pain, is formidable.

Reviewed by Clive Hodges

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo credit: Els Zweerink

Dame Hilary Mary Mantel was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, Every Day Is Mother’s Day, was released in 1985. She went on to write 12 novels, two collections of short stories, a personal memoir, and numerous articles and opinion pieces.

Mantel won the Booker Prize twice: the first was for her 2009 novel Wolf Hall, a fictional account of Thomas Cromwell’s rise to power in the court of Henry VIII, and the second was for its 2012 sequel Bring Up the Bodies. The third installment of the Cromwell trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, was longlisted for the same prize. The trilogy has gone on to sell more than 5 million copies.

https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/hilary-mantel-reading-list-a-guide-to-her-booker-nominated-titlesFind out more about Hillary Mantel’s Booker winning titles