Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall trilogy, no more

Hilary Mantel, British author of the Tudor series of books known as the Wolf Hall trilogy, passed away peacefully on Thursday, September 22, Reuters reports. The twice Booker Prize-winning author was 70. 

"So brilliant, so eerie and so generous…she made such uncanny clarity out of the strange materials of her life," British author Olivia Laing, who profiled Hilary Mantel in 2014, wrote on her social media. 

Mantel was the first woman author to win the Booker Prize twice—for Wolf Hall (2009) followed by Bring Up The Bodies (2011), the second book in the series. The trilogy, which sold five million copies worldwide and has been translated to 41 languages, chronicles the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to King Henry VIII's court from 1534 to 1540. With 2020's The Mirror and the Light completing the series, the books feature historic Tudor figures such as Anne Boleyn, Thomas More, and others. 

"It is with great sadness that HarperCollins announces that bestselling author Dame Hilary Mantel DBE died peacefully, surrounded by close family and friends, yesterday," announced 4th Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins, Mantel's publishers. 

Her work includes 17 books, among them the memoir Giving Up The Ghosts (2003). She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1990.