Audiobooks by Hilary Mantel

A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing

A Memoir of My Former Self reveals the shape of Hilary Mantel's life in her own dazzling words, narrated by a prestigious cast of actors and notable literary figures connected to Hilary's work. From her unique childhood to her all-consuming fascination with Thomas Cromwell that grew into the Wolf Hall Trilogy, Hilary Mantel had a celebrated career as a novelist. Alongside this, she long contributed to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. This strand of Hilary's writing was an integral part of how she thought of herself. 'Ink is a generative fluid,' she explains. 'If you don't mean your words to breed consequences, don't write at all.' A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades. Mantel's subjects are wide-ranging. She discusses nationalism and her own sense of belonging; our dream life flopping into our conscious life; the mythic legacy of Princess Diana; the many themes that feed into her novels - revolutionary France, psychics, Tudor England - and other novelists, from Jane Austen to V. S. Naipaul. She writes about her father and the man who replaced him; she writes fiercely and heartbreakingly about the battles with her health she endured as a young woman, and the stifling years she found herself living in Saudi Arabia. Here, too, is a selection of her film reviews - from When Harry Met Sally to RoboCop - and, published for the first time, her stunning Reith Lectures, which explore the process of art bringing history and the dead back to life. Compelling, often very funny, always luminous, it is essential listening from one of our greatest writers. Voiced by Ben Miles, Lydia Leonard and Aurora Dawson-Hunte; all of whom have featured in stage adaptions of Hilary's work. With contributions from actress Jane Wymark, narrator of Hilary's memoir Giving up the Ghost. Readings from authors Anne Enright; the first Laureate for Irish Fiction and winner of the 2007 Booker Prize, and Sarah Waters; British Book Award Author of the Year and two-time Booker Prize nominee. Joining the cast are Hilary's long-time literary agent Bill Hamilton and her publisher for nearly twenty years, Nicholas Pearson. 'A smart, deft, meticulous, thoughtful writer, with such a grasp of the dark and spidery corners of human nature' - Margaret Atwood

Hilary Mantel (Author), Anne Enright, Aurora Dawson Hunte, Ben Miles, Bill Hamilton, Jane Wymark, Lydia Leonard, Nicholas Pearson, Sarah Waters (Narrator)

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Un esperimento d'amore

Carmel McBain è figlia unica di genitori cattolici di origine irlandese appartenenti alla classe operaia. Rispetto a ciò che la vita nella loro desolata cittadina ha da offrire, sua madre per lei aspira a qualcosa di più: ha grandi ambizioni per la figlia, ed è determinata a superare le rigide barriere sociali dell'Inghilterra. E così spinge Carmel a ottenere una borsa di studio per la scuola del convento locale e poi a sostenere gli esami per un posto alla London University. E Carmel non la delude. Ma il successo ha un prezzo non indifferente: Carmel comincia un viaggio solitario che la porterà il più lontano possibile da dove è partita, sradicandola dai legami di classe e luogo, di famiglia e di fede. In fondo, sradicandola da se stessa. Nella Londra di fine anni Sessanta, sperimentando un passo alla volta la libertà, si confronterà con preoccupazioni del tutto nuove – sesso, politica, cibo e fertilità – e si troverà coinvolta in una grottesca tragedia.

Hilary Mantel (Author), Teresa Saponangelo (Narrator)

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Mantel Pieces: Royal Bodies and Other Writing from the London Review of Books

A stunning collection of essays and memoir from twice Booker Prize winner and international bestseller Hilary Mantel, author of The Mirror and the Light In 1987, when Hilary Mantel was first published in the London Review of Books, she wrote to the editor, Karl Miller, ‘I have no critical training whatsoever, so I am forced to be more brisk and breezy than scholarly.’ This collection of twenty reviews, essays and pieces of memoir from the next three decades, tells the story of what happened next. Her subjects range far and wide: Robespierre and Danton, the Hite report, Saudi Arabia where she lived for four years in the 1980s, the Bulger case, John Osborne, the Virgin Mary as well as the pop icon Madonna, a brilliant examination of Helen Duncan, Britain’s last witch. There are essays about Jane Boleyn, Charles Brandon, Christopher Marlowe and Margaret Pole, which display the astonishing insight into the Tudor mind we are familiar with from the bestselling Wolf Hall Trilogy. Her famous lecture, ‘Royal Bodies’, which caused a media frenzy, explores the place of royal women in society and our imagination. Here too are some of her LRB diaries, including her first meeting with her stepfather and a confrontation with a circus strongman. Constantly illuminating, always penetrating and often very funny, interleaved with letters and other ephemera gathered from the archive, Mantel Pieces is an irresistible selection from one of our greatest living writers.

Hilary Mantel (Author), Hilary Mantel - Introduction, Olivia Dowd (Narrator)

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Four Great Contemporary European Stories

Augustin Cupsa, Danilo Ki, Hilary Mantel, Nicolás Mavrakis (Author), Dahlia Lynn, Daniel Winer, Johnny Phillips (Narrator)

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Bring Up the Bodies

Listen to the exciting new rendition of Bring Up the Bodies, read by Ben Miles who was personally cast by the author and played Thomas Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. With an historic win for Bring Up the Bodies, the second book in the gripping Thomas Cromwell Trilogy, Hilary Mantel becomes the first British author to be awarded two Man Booker Prizes. Winner of the Man Booker Prize. Winner of the Costa Book of the Year. By 1535 Thomas Cromwell is Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes having risen with those of Anne Boleyn, the king's new wife. But Anne has failed to give the king an heir, and Cromwell watches as Henry falls for plain Jane Seymour. Cromwell must find a solution that will satisfy Henry, safeguard the nation and secure his own career. But neither minister nor king will emerge unscathed from the bloody theatre of Anne's final days. An astounding literary accomplishment, Bring Up the Bodies is the story of this most terrifying moment of history, by one of our greatest living novelists. 'Simply exceptional...I envy anyone who hasn't yet read it.' DAILY MAIL 'A gripping story of tumbling fury and terror.' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

Hilary Mantel (Author), Ben Miles (Narrator)

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Wolf Hall

Listen to the exciting new rendition of Wolf Hall, read by Ben Miles who was personally cast by the author and played Thomas Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. The winner of the Man Booker Prize and captivating first book in the Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Winner of the Man Booker Prize. Shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award. England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor. Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages. From one of our finest living writers, Wolf Hall is that very rare thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion and suffering and courage. 'Dizzyingly, dazzlingly good.' DAILY MAIL 'Our most brilliant English writer.' GUARDIAN Shortlisted for the Golden Man Booker Prize.

Hilary Mantel (Author), Ben Miles (Narrator)

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Falken, Teil 2 von 2 - Thomas Cromwell, Band 2 (Ungekürzt)

England zur Tudor-Zeit: Als Sekretär und erster Minister von König Henry VIII. hat Thomas Cromwell 1535 den Zenit seiner Macht erreicht. Er ist zusammen mit der neuen Königin Anne Boleyn aufgestiegen. Nun wartet ganz England ungeduldig auf die Geburt eines männlichen Erben. Doch Anne Boleyn vermag dem König keinen Thronfolger zu schenken und henry verliebt sich in die schüchterne Jane Seymour. Erneut liegen die Geschicke Englands in Thomas Cromwells Händen.

Hilary Mantel (Author), Frank Stöckle (Narrator)

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Spiegel und Licht, Teil 1 von 3 - Thomas Cromwell, Band 3 (Gekürzt)

Wenn du bei einer Hinrichtung nicht die Wahrheit sagen kannst, wann wirst du sie jemals sagen können? England 1536: Mit der Hinrichtung Anne Boleyns ist Thomas Cromwell mehr denn je der engste Vertraute Henrys VIII. Loyal gegenüber dem König, gerissen im Umgang mit Verbündeten, gnadenlos gegen Feinde triumphiert der Mann aus einfachen Verhältnissen über alle. Doch was wird geschehen, wenn seine Feinde erstarken und sie den König auf ihre Seite ziehen?

Hilary Mantel (Author), Frank Stieren (Narrator)

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Spiegel und Licht, Teil 2 von 3 - Thomas Cromwell, Band 3 (Gekürzt)

Hilary Mantel (Author), Frank Stieren (Narrator)

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Spiegel und Licht, Teil 3 von 3 - Thomas Cromwell, Band 3 (Gekürzt)

Hilary Mantel (Author), Frank Stieren (Narrator)

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Falken, Teil 1 von 2 - Thomas Cromwell, Band 2 (Ungekürzt)

Hilary Mantel (Author), Frank Stöckle (Narrator)

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The Mirror and the Light

Listen to the long-awaited sequel to Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, the stunning conclusion to Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize-winning Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Read by Ben Miles, who played Thomas Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, and was personally cast by the author. This edition includes a bonus conversation between Ben Miles and Hilary Mantel. 'If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?' England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith's son from Putney emerges from the spring's bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry's regime to breaking point, Cromwell's robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him? With The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man's vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.

Hilary Mantel (Author), Ben Miles (Narrator)

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