Hello, my name is David Ronsman and this is Talking Politics. Today we have a special

edition. Helen Thompson and I are talking to Hillary Mantel about power, about monarchy,

and about Thomas Krommer. Talking Politics is brought to you in partnership with the London

Review of Books, Europe's leading review of culture and ideas. And the LRB is returning

to first principles with their latest exclusive offer for Talking Politics listeners, get

12 issues of the magazine for just 12 pounds and they'll also send you one of their surprisingly

famous tote bags, acclaimed by the likes of New York magazine and vice. Just use the

URL mylb.co.uk slash talking bag. That's mylb.co.uk slash talking bag.

We recorded this episode of Talking Politics in front of a live audience at Conway Hall

in London on Tuesday evening. We were partly there with the London Review of Books to celebrate

the publication of mantle pieces in paperback. That is a collection of Hillary Mantel's

writings in the LRB over more than 30 years essays on all sorts of subjects from Madonna

to the French Revolution, but also some essays on Tudor history. And that's where we began

this conversation. Talking to Hillary Mantel before we get on to Thomas Kromwell and Henry

VIII and present day politics too, but some of the tutors you might not be so familiar

with.

Good evening everybody. Welcome to everybody who's watching online as well. It is an enormous

pleasure for Helen Thompson and myself to be able to talk to Hillary Mantel this evening.

Helen and I spent quite a lot of lockdown talking about Hillary's magnificent Thomas Kromwell

trilogy, particularly The Mirror and the Light. We had so many things that we wanted to

say about it that we ended up recording a podcast about it without Hillary. So it's

a thrill for us to be able to have some of these conversations with Hillary Mantel, but

...