Hilary Mantel says final Wolf Hall book likely to be delayed

Hilary Mantel’s hotly anticipated final instalment to her Man Booker-winning Wolf Hall trilogy is unlikely to appear next summer, the author said this week. Responding to a question from the audience in her latest Reith lecture for the BBC, she said it was “increasingly unlikely” the book would be published in 2018 as she had previously hoped. The novel, which completes the story of Henry VIII’s doomed right-hand man Thomas Cromwell, will be titled The Mirror and the Light. The first two books in the trilogy – Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies – both won the Man Booker prize, making Mantel the first author to win for consecutive books. Hilary Mantel: why I became a historical novelist Read more Asked about the final instalment, Mantel said: “It simply depends when it comes in … you know, publishing goes in seasons. If I can get it [finished] early in the new year, it might very well come out in later summer. But I have to say that this is looking increasingly unlikely.”