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Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel - Review

Monday, January 27, 2025


We've been packing up some of my books recently and I came across this, Hilary Mantel's autobiography. Now I've never actually read any of her novels, Tudor or otherwise, but of course I know of her, and this must have intrigued me enough to pick it up in a charity shop or something. My interest was piqued again so I read it.

And it is marvellous! It is such a good memoir and I would recommend it whether you're a fan of hers or not. A lot of it is given over to her childhood in Hadfield in Derbyshire, a place that I sometimes drive through and know. I didn't realise she was northern! Her family was a bit complicated with aunts and grandparents nearby; the young Helen split her time between a few houses. Her mother started an affair with a man called Jack and he lived in their house with both parents still there. He eventually moved the family out to Cheshire and Hilary never saw her father again. 

There's also a lot given to her second home in Norfolk and how it was a place of refuge for her for quite a long time. She was married young, and later divorced and then remarried the same man. She talks about her university life and the poverty that she and her husband had to face while young and it was a very good portrayal of humdrum life in the 1970s. I liked the stuff around the second home. Hilary seemed to feel almost guilty that she had made enough money to be able to do this. 

But the part of the memoir that resonated the most for me was Hilary's telling of her struggle with endometriosis. It is something that I myself have suffered with and am only 'cured' now thanks to a hormonal IUD. Endo has left me in pain a lot and disabled by it, and it means I wasn't able to have kids. This was the same for Hilary. She talks about sub standard medical care and about being hospitalised in a maternity ward (which would be my idea of hell). It was written to beautifully and so tragically. If you have suffered with anything similar (adenomyosis [which I also have] is equally shit) I would really really recommend it. 

I love life writing and whenever I read something like this it makes me want to write my own memoir for real. I'm giving it five out of five. 

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