A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing by Hilary Mantel

I’ve read several novels and short stories by Hilary Mantel and while I think her writing is very good, the mean streak that runs through her stories disconcerts me. Mantel was obviously very intelligent and the thought of a potentially malicious wit being turned on me, her reader, frightened me. With this read, I told myself that if I didn’t like A Memoir of My Former Self; A Life in Writing, I would just stop reading it. Too obvious? Not if you’re the type of reader who likes to finish every book you start.

As it turned out, I found this collection of essays to be fascinating. I hadn’t realised that Hilary Mantel was an historian, somehow, none of the books that I’d already read were her historical novels.

A Memoir of My Former Self; A Life in Writing is broken into sections, beginning with Part One, Once Upon A Life, which included personal stories. In I Once Stole A Book, Mantel tells the story of a school library book aptly called Moral Questions, which hadn’t been borrowed in 35 years before she issued it to herself on what she called a ‘lifelong loan.’ I’m not going to judge her, as I also have a book on my shelves that came from my own school library over forty years ago. ‘My’ book hadn’t been borrowed by anyone else in a similar amount of time either. I like to think I’m an honest person, but I also once stole a book. To add to my crime, I don’t intend to give it back, either.

Last Morning in Al Hamra was written in 1987 and is an extraordinary account of the author’s life in Saudi Arabia, where she lived for five constrained years, eventually coming to hate the country’s culture.

Part Two, titled Writing in the Dark section contained film reviews. I enjoyed Not By Bread Alone, which was about Babette’s Feast, and Bittersweet Treat, about When Harry Met Sally, as had seen these films, but I did not read any of the other essays in this section as had not watched the films that were reviewed.

The essays in Part Three, Turn the Page, discussed writing by authors including Jane Austen, Annie Proulx and Rebecca West.

Part Four, The Reith Lectures was made up of five lectures discussing Mantel’s historical fiction. I particularly enjoyed these and am now very keen to read her Wolf Hall trilogy.

Part Five, The Moon Was a Tender Crescent contained interesting essays about odd topics. A Life of Biggles was a fascinating study of that iconic and much-loved character, Elizabeth Jane Howard was a generous tribute to Mantel’s fellow author and friend, and Female Role Models highlights the fabulous Katy Carr from What Katy Did. Mantel said that emulating Katy’s stoicism when it came to her own ill health caused her years of suffering.

I think anyone who has enjoyed or appreciated Hilary Mantel’s works will enjoy and appreciate A Memoir of My Former Self; A Life in Writing.