Oh dear, Hilary Mantel's unstoppable success has finally been, well, stopped. Well at least some of the lovely members of the British press have jumped on the first thing they can to put an end to Mantel's impressive year following the publication of her Costa and double-Booker winning Bring Up the Bodies.
Much to my mum's despair, I'm a bit of a royalist (I'll come back to Hilary in a mo). I can totally see all the arguments - monarchy is outdated, it's expensive, it's undemocratic, the Queen doesn't smile any more etc etc - but at the end of the day I think you are just a little cold inside if you didn't feel a tincy bit excited when Kate walked down the aisle in that enviable Alexander McQueen dress or a little in awe of the Queen and Prince Philip who, in their 80s and 90s, stood for several hours in the cold and rain to wave at people and watch some boats.
Now, Hilary Mantel is pretty well-acquainted with our historical royal families but unfortunately she has slightly underestimated the modern royals' popularity this time. Taken slightly out of context, arguably the prefix to many different scandal-exposing articles by the tabloid press, Hilary Mantel has been charged with the utmost treacherous behaviour - taking a stab at the Duchess of Cornwall.
During a lecture entitled Royal Bodies, Mantel was quoted describing Kate Middleton as 'a plastic princess designed to breed', while comparing her to the likes of other young royal women - Diana, Marie Antoinette... Unfortunately for Mantel it seems these words are all that has been taken from the original lecture, the point of which writer Beatrix Campbell tweeted was to "NOT attack K. Middleton" but rather "offered feminist critique of monarchism."
I'm not sure we can 110% defend Mantel, she definitely said what she said, but I don't believe she meant to offend the individual, nor her fans. It was merely, in my opinion, a controversial interpretation of the modern royal family and how it relates to earlier royal dynasties that she is, perhaps, a little better acquainted with, after writing the likes of Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and my favourite, A Place of Greater Safety, and are unlikely to be immediately offended...
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