Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and its sequel, Bring Up The Bodies, won the Man Booker prize in 2009 and 2012. Her newest book is the short story collection, The Assassination Of Margaret Thatcher.

From the author's Q & A with Rosanna Greenstreet for the Guardian:

What is your greatest fear?

Words fail me.

What is your earliest memory?

A spider.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?

Persons are best considered posthumously.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

I don't finish my sentences because I…

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Finishing them for me. Believe me, that is not what I was going to say.

Your most embarrassing moment?

It's complex. It involves...[read on]

Mantel's Wolf Hall made Ester Bloom's top ten books for fans of the television series House of Cards, Rachel Cantor's list of the ten worst jobs in books, Kathryn Williams's reading list on pride, the Barnes & Noble Review's list of books on baby-watching in Great Britain, Julie Buntin's top ten list of literary kids with deadbeat and/or absent dads, Hermione Norris's 6 best books list, John Mullan's list of ten of the best cardinals in literature, the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five books on dangerous minds and Lev Grossman's list of the top ten fiction books of 2009, and is one of Geraldine Brooks's favorite works of historical fiction; Matt Beynon Rees called it "[s]imply the best historical novel for many, many years."

--Marshal Zeringue