Final book of Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy out next March

Double Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel will come out on next March with the final novel of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy which she says has been the greatest challenge of her writing life.

"The Mirror & the Light" will bring to a close the series she began in 2005 with "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies". The first two books fetched her the Booker awards.

"When I began work on my Thomas Cromwell books back in 2005, I had high hopes, but it took time to feel out the full scope of the material. I didn't know at first I would write a trilogy, but gradually I realised the richness and fascination of this extraordinary life," she says.

In "The Mirror & the Light", Mantel traces the final years of Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.

According to her, "The Mirror & the Light" has been the "greatest challenge of my writing life, and the most rewarding; I hope and trust my readers will find it has been worth the wait".

The novel will be published in March 2020 by 4th Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins.

"Bring Up the Bodies" also won the 2012 Costa Book of the Year. Both the first two books have been adapted for the stage by Playful Productions / Royal Shakespeare Company.

Mantel, 67, is the author of 14 books, including "A Place of Greater Safety", "Beyond Black", and the memoir "Giving up the Ghost".

Oxford Films has been commissioned by the BBC to make a film exploring the life and work of Mantel, to coincide with the publication of "The Mirror & the Light" in the UK.