In the week of the Wolf Hall author’s memorial, her husband and agent talk about the Jane Austen satire she was working on when she died in 2022. Plus: read an exclusive extract, along with her earliest published work
). McEwen was always her first reader. She would turn to him not for literary criticism, she said, but for his “reaction as a human being” to her work in progress. He is keeping that final notebook, he says, “because it contains all kinds of stuff, which I wouldn’t want to be out there, even after I’m dead. It’s just too private.”
She was an outsider within her family, within her religion, within England, and that gave her this extraordinary fresh perspective on everything The planned move to Ireland “gave her permission to look sardonically back across the Irish sea,” Hamilton says of her decision to turn to Austen for her next novel. “To take another English icon and do with it what she pleased.”was also something of an iconoclast.
She had been working on the new novel for about six months, which, Hamilton says, “probably means she had been thinking about it for five years”. She was infuriated by the cosiness of the Austen industry, he explains, the glossing over of the underlying social awkwardness and Austen’s spiky wit in the endless TV and film remakes. “I just think she thought, ‘I can make this really funny and I can fill in gaps.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Hilary Mantel was working on ‘mashup’ of Jane Austen novels before her deathWolf Hall trilogy author remembered at memorial service at Southwark cathedral on Thursday
Read more »
Experts point to empty offices for extra housing supply as new builds stallCommercial office approvals have hit a long-term high in Sydney, pushing new residential builds down the waiting list. 👇
Read more »
Hilary Mantel was working on ‘mashup’ of Jane Austen novels before her deathWolf Hall trilogy author remembered at memorial service at Southwark cathedral on Thursday
Read more »
Columnist Jessica Irvine quits journalism to join CBAOne of Australia’s most prominent economics commentators, Jessica Irvine, has quit journalism and joined the Commonwealth Bank.
Read more »
Musical about ‘first working-class model’ Twiggy to open in LondonWriter and director Ben Elton tells story of woman who was ‘most famous teenager in the world’ in the 1960s
Read more »
Elon Musk pays for Stephen King and LeBron James to keep Twitter blue ticksWriter and basketball star are among famous names to retain ticks despite not signing up to Twitter Blue
Read more »