Mantel, Hilary (1952– )

English writer. She lived in Botswana for five years from 1977, and then in Saudi Arabia for three years. Her writing covers a varied subject matter from historical fiction tales to true-to-life tales from both modern Saudi Arabia (as in Eight Months on Ghazzah Street (1988)) and Africa (as in A Change of Climate (1994)). Her later books include Giving Up the Ghost: A Memoir (2003), an autobiography in fiction and non-fiction, and Learning to Talk: Short Stories (2003).

Mantel also writes about political and social issues. Every Day is Mother's Day (1985) and Vacant Possession (1986) focus on the state of medical care in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s, and the UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher makes an anonymous cameo in An Experiment in Love (1995). Her novel The Giant, O'Brien (1998) tells the story of Charles O'Brien who leaves his home in Ireland to make his fortune as a sideshow attraction in London. Mantel was awarded the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize in 1987, the Winifred Holtby Award in 1990, and the Hawthornden Prize in 1996.

Mantel was born in Derbyshire, England, and attended the London School of Economics and the University of Sheffield.