Hello, my name's David Rundsman and this is Talking Politics. Today we have a special edition.

Helen Thompson and I are talking to Hilary Mantell about power, about monarchy and about Thomas Cromwell.

Talking Politics is brought to you in partnership with the London Review of Books,

Europe's leading review of culture and ideas.

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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 mantel 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 Cromwell and Henry VIII and present-day politics too, about some of the tutors you might not be so familiar with. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to everyone here and welcome to everyone here and 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 Hilary Mantell this evening.

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

particularly The Mirror and the Light, and we had so many things that we wanted to say about it,

that we ended up recording a podcast about it without Hillary,

and so it's a thrill for us to be able to have some of these conversations with Hilary Mantel.

But we're also here to celebrate the publication of mantel pieces in paperback,

and as I'm sure you've heard, it's available to buy after this event.

Hillary's writings from the LRB over more than 30 years on a whole range of subjects,

but including Tudor history, which is where we're going to start.

We'll broaden it out. We'll talk about Cromwell. We'll talk about Henry the 8th, but we will make our way to the present too.

And then we're going to leave plenty of time for questions.

Questions from the audience here, but also if you have questions online, they will find their way to somebody in

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