MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2009

AUM
MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2009 For HILARY MANTEL
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM

Hilary Mantel takes us to the 16th century England and lets us have a view of the life and times of King Henry VIII and his Chief Minister, Oliver Cromwell. Never mind the passage of four centuries, a reader, breathes, eats, lives and loves in the pages penned by Hilary Mantel. On reading the historical novel, which she mulled over for two decades and then decided to write, one knows the Tudor England of 1520s and meets face to face with King Henry VIII. The book “Wolf Hall” that brought her the prize money –GBP 50,000 also charts the rise of Cromwell, son of an ordinary blacksmith who advised the king on divorcing the Queen and ably handled the final break of England with the Pope of Rome. England became Protestant for nuptial reasons and not for listening to the call of conscience. The common man walked on the path paved by the monarch.
Mantel,57, took 5 years to write the book. On being nominated for the coveted prize of the academic world, she said” I am flying high through the air.” Now she is working on another novel that will be a sequel to the prize winning book. Wolf Hall is a modern novel and the English prose gives a reader a sense of joy that beggars description.
James Naughtie, Chairman of the judges for the big prize said”It has a vast narrative sweep that gleams on every page with luminous and mesmerizing details.” The book reveals how politics and history are made by men and women. It may be recalled that Wolf Hall is Hilary Mantel’s eleventh book. 48,000 copies of the book have been sold so far. It is expected that the sale will now pick up a fast speed and the number may also go up.
Those were turbulent times in England. After the Tudors were gone, King Charles I ascended the throne. He lived violently and died violently. In the English history, he was the only king who was beheaded by his own people. Of course, the execution was carried out after going through the due process of law. Cromwell rose to power thereafter. He may be credited with the historical fact of making the Parliament supreme and remaining steadfast in seeing that Protestantism continued to be the State religion in England.
Wolf Hall as a historical novel has set a benchmark for the new generation novelists to emulate.
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