Edinburgh International Book Festival: Hilary Mantel

The chair of this event, James Runcie, remarked at the start that Hilary Mantel had long been a literary secret, admired by writers and journalists but somewhat ignored by the reading public. Then she was 'discovered' with the release of Wolf Hall. Runcie said that this meant she was subject to various patronising descriptions as 'Hilary Mantel, aged 57 from Glossop', as if she was a housewife who wrote books on the side. He had a point, and so Mantel returned to the theme regularly, in a sort of 'how would I know, I'm from Glossop' sort of way. The mention of her roots led, perhaps, to more attention being paid to her accent when she read from her latest book, Bring Up the Bodies, than was necessary, but in Mantel's accented and rather high voice, her reading was, somehow, more compelling than by a more 'normal' reader. Mantel chose to read a piece where Henry VIII starts courting Jane Seymour (who was wife number 3, if you're keeping score). The romantic novelist might depict this as Henry out riding, when he spies a pretty girl, Mantel said. The historical novelist would quibble, she continued, because Henry knew Jane Seymour's family for a long time before he married her. Her job as a novelist was to bridge the two approaches, and her best weapon for this was her imagination. This imagination was only glimpsed in this event, which ran to standard, but somehow lacked punch. Nonetheless, it was amiable enough and it was good to see Mantel at the festival after last year's cancellation. [Keir Hind]