There’s not long to go until The Mirror and The Light, the third book in Hilary Mantel’s Booker-winning Tudor trilogy, hits shelves.
And ahead of the book’s release, BBC Two have confirmed a new film with the author, Hilary Mantel – Return To Wolf Hall.
Shot over six months in the run up to publication of The Mirror And The Light, Hilary Mantel will delve into her past in the candid film, describing her vivid imagination, active from an early age, and a tale of growing up with a dark family secret.
The film – which will air on BBC Two on March 7 at 9pm – will bring exclusive and extensive access to one of the world’s greatest living writers.
Who could have imagined that Mantel’s working class anti-hero Thomas Cromwell would come to be so loved across the globe? Five hundred years after his death, the story of Cromwell’s extraordinary rise and sudden fall has been brought back into the light, drawing a vast readership, two Booker wins, a Bafta-winning television adaptation, a West End show and the interpretative gifts of some of the UK’s greatest actors.
Intertwining the themes of the Wolf Hall trilogy – power, faith, kingship – with stories from Hilary’s own life, the film also explores how the world of Thomas Cromwell reverberates in the world today.
Hilary Mantel – Return To Wolf Hall follows the writer as she talks about how and why she embarked on the trilogy, and how the writing of it has changed her life.
Viewers will see Hilary Mantel – a writer at the peak of her powers – in both her real and imaginative worlds, led by the curiosity that has driven her from the beginning.
Hilary Mantel – Return To Wolf Hall will air on BBC Two on March 7. The Mirror & The Light will be published on March 5.
