Historians hate me, says Dame Hilary Mantel: Author, 64, says experts see historical novelists as 'parasites'
- The author said historians think historical novelists 'steal their sales'
- She added historians also 'worry about the prospect of the public being misled'
- Her novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies are both set in the 16th century
Her best-selling novels have gripped the nation both in print and on screen.
But Dame Hilary Mantel has said historians see historical novelists as ‘parasites’ who steal their readers and mislead the public.
When asked why some historians may dislike historical fiction, the 64-year-old author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies said: ‘Perhaps they think we are parasites and that we steal their sales. To be fair, I think historians worry about the prospect of the public being misled.
‘And if a novelist is giving factual information, I think she shares the historian’s obligation to be accurate, to be up to date with research and to be aware of variant versions.’
Prizewinner: Dame Hilary Mantel has said historians see historical novelists as ‘parasites’
The Booker Prize-winning novelist added: ‘But readers know what they’re doing when they pick up a novel. They don’t blunder into fiction by accident. They are able to work out, I think, what can be drawn from evidence, and what can’t.
‘A novelist does not have access to private conversation whispered behind the hand, nor to letters burned on receipt, not to the stream of consciousness of long-dead men and women.’
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Dame Hilary, whose novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies are both set in the 16th century and depict the rise to power of Thomas Cromwell, was made a Dame in 2014 for services to literature.
The outspoken author said historical novels can have a positive impact by encouraging readers to get animated about history.
‘If she offers these things to the reader, clearly there’s an element of invention. And if the reader wonders, “Is this true or made up?” and does a little investigation, isn’t that all to the good?
Novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies are both set in the 16th century and depict the rise to power of Thomas Cromwell
‘One of the things a historical novel can do is to prompt a reader to think about what we know, and what we could know – given luck and diligence – and what kind of things we can never know.
‘In general, historians are more friendly to the form than they used to be. They recognise the need to engage the public and that our efforts are complementary, and that some aspects of our trade are the same.’
Speaking in the June edition of the BBC’s History Magazine, the author, whose novels were turned into a BBC drama starring Damian Lewis, said the main pitfall of making film and TV adaptions of historical fiction is that crucial elements are often edited out due to time constraints.
She said: ‘Feature films are notoriously inaccurate, sometimes to the point of distortion. I think writers and editors seldom set out to deceive. But a tiny change in a rewrite can lose or alter a vital point, without anyone noticing at the time.
Her books were turned into a BBC miniseries entitled Wolf Hall, staring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell (pictured)
‘But how much can anyone do in 104 minutes? Better to slice history fine – concentrate on a small incident, let its implications ripple – than try to digest mighty storylines.
‘The screen can do wonderful things. It can do in a split second what takes a novelist six pages. It can achieve effects with heart-stopping precision.
‘But you can’t really adapt one medium to another – you have to re-conceptualise. Throw down the book and dream it’.
Dame Hilary, who studied law at London School of Economics and the University of Sheffied, sparked controversy in 2013 when she described the Duchess of Cambridge as a ‘shop-window mannequin’ who was ‘machine-made’.
The author has since apologised for the comments made during a lecture organised by The London Review of Books.
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