Tuesday, 20 January 2015

Hilary Mantel - not the villain that everyone thought?

A new BBC television drama Wife Hil tells the story of the Elizabethan woman Dame Hilary Mantel. History has not treated her kindly and she is regarded by some Catholics as a cruel and unpleasant woman who chose to persecute them. Most people remember her words that the Catholic Church "is not an institution for respectable people," and many faithful Catholics were severely traumatised when they discovered that Dame Hilary did not regard them with respect.

Pope facepalm

"Dame Hilary doesn't respect me. How can I live this down?"

One firm supporter of Hilary Mantel is Tommy Cromwell, the author of Wife Hil. "You have to realise that Dame Hilary held views that were very common amongst twenty-first century intellectuals," he explains. "For example, her confession that she fantasized about the murdering of Margaret Thatcher was perfectly normal amongst lefties of the time; likewise her description of the future Queen Catherine as 'a shop window mannequin', although it could be seen as unpleasantly personal bullying, merely indicated that she did not feel that the princess lived up to her own standards of beauty and elegance."

Mantel looking weird

The beautiful Dame Hilary. When you pulled her nose, her eyes rotated in opposite directions.

The public is avidly waiting for future instalments of Tommy Cromwell's Wife Hil saga in order to discover the ultimate fate of Dame Hilary. Like her, Tommy was born a Catholic but later turned to the dark side, so he has a unique insight into the psychological problems this may cause. One possible version of the story says that Dame Hilary was unable to survive in a position of power after making enemies of the Church, the Crown, and the Government. It is not clear whether the final outcome was her execution for treason and heresy on Tower Hill.

Thomas Cromwell

Tommy Cromwell, the prize-winning writer.

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8 comments:

  1. Patricius20 January 2015 at 21:22

    "The beautiful Dame Hilary"- I seem to recall a magazine advertising these as masks for Halloween.

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  2. JARay21 January 2015 at 12:34

    In the house I grew up in we had a mantelpiece. Where I live now, such a feature would certainly be an anachronism, but if ever I wished to install such an object, I would certainly want a Mantel Piece at one end, and a Toby Jug at the other.

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  3. Anonymous21 January 2015 at 15:39

    Did Ms Mantel really say that the Church was not for respectable people? I do hope so, because I have never been respectable in my life, and frankly wouldn't have respectability as a gift if it were given away with a pound of tea. I don't think another novelist, whose works have stood the test of time, one GKC, valued respectability or respectable people much either.

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    Replies
    1. Eccles21 January 2015 at 15:43

      I'm sure she intended it as a mortal insult, but it just makes her look silly.

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    2. johnf4 February 2015 at 07:52

      I think that it was Oscar Wilde who said that the Catholic Church was for Saints and sinners, whereas the Church of England was for respectable people.

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  4. JARay21 January 2015 at 19:38

    She looks silly anyway!

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  5. Lepanto22 January 2015 at 15:59

    Saw episode 1. Credit where it's due, Mark Rylance was the best 'lump of wood' since Pinocchio. The director said 'restraint' and he went all out for comatose. And at last we know that Thomas More was an ambitious nasty piece of work and TC was a saint. How did we get it so wrong? Does being 'boss-eyed' help in establishing the truth of such matters?

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  6. Elwin Daniels1 February 2015 at 21:41

    If I had a face like that I wouldn't draw so much attention to myself.

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