Hilary Mantel and David Starkey discuss Henry VIII - part 1

I was very much wanting to write but obviously the moment we Henry enters that book is a very crucial moment and Cromwell has already been born he's preparing a round for you walked into what he imagines will be a very sticky interview so obviously I thought very hard about how to introduce Henry as indeed a novelist must when they will these great characters onto the stage about which people have so many preconceptions and of course it's incumbent on a novelist to make her own Henry Danita her own so to speak oh grateful we are two historians who have collected the evidence for us we were looking to make our King work in the economy of this novel so even sense it's got to be rethought from first principles but I wanted to write about Cromwell he's fascinated me for years because I'm so interested in this question of do you make your own luck hmm and how does a certain player a man from nowhere' which interests me as well suddenly emerge onto the stage what combination of luck and management brings a certain person to their moment in history I've always been fascinated thrilled by this and I could I could see this story working from Cromwell through his career I have of course another book about him yet to write because I take my story up to the death of Thomas More but I think the thing about Cromwell is in some respects he's a nightmare to a biographer and a gift to a novelist because his public life is exceptionally well documented his private life hardly known at all and the first 30 years of his life was so very obscure and what what it's like it's as if he's laid a paper trail and at the end of it he's vanished so what must present as I say a nightmare to the biographer and indeed Elton thought that one could not properly write a biography of Cromwell it's the great opportunity for the novelist to well proceed on the basis of what evidence we have use that as a jumping off point and dismay enterprise in some way because it would like a few more hints but of course I mean Elton was much more extreme than that he disapproved biography . he and I hardly certain that I'm allowed to say this this may be my Carol Thatcher moment but Geoffrey I remember vividly towards the end he was my supervisor of course as I was beginning to knit together what became my dissertation I said well well obvious wait which to put together all of this stuff on the people round Henri they need the guide Amelia yeah in which Henri operates would be to write a biography of Henri hmm not serious leave it alone women yes of course out there any phrase it just got married at that point I knew that was the other thing is one of the very very interesting things that that there's been this reclaiming biography yes over the last 20 or 30 years by very serious very interesting Papa scholars you see the thing is I think you can understand the point in a way if you're not have lost books with Henry the eighth's on the spine Henry isn't in their life and times and sexual life and time you know if you look at any book with Thomas Cromwell on the spine it's definitely not in there what you have is policies issues debates Gotama sees papers again or more of the paper trail you don't have a man yeah I'm hoping by the time you get to the end of your great project Oh we'll be able to look into a book with over the eighth of the spine and the man will be in more that is sort of what I'm trying yes always Henry is is he's not quite as difficult as Cromwell but he is quite difficult there's nothing for example with his daughter Elizabeth there are lots of very very personal jottings she writes at moments of tension strange contorted poems prayers and that sort of thing there's no equivalent for Henry there is a constant process of glimpsing or all the time of course as it was seeing Henry in a mirror yes there are other people's opinions and reactions

Channel: Historic Royal Palaces

Views: 74,036

Keywords: David Starkey, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Tower of London, Henry VIII, Historic Fiction, British History, Tudor History, Meet the author, TUdors

Id: fRQbyjvpYwU

Length: 5min 16sec (316 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 20 2009