'Her long essays on female writers show Mantel at her best . . . Indeed she excels at writing about writing generally . . . And it's on being a writer that Mantel is funniest . . . a guide to the mind of one of the great English novelists of the last half-century'
- Guardian
'Today, she reigns supreme as the queen of the historical novel: the achievement of her Wolf Hall trilogy, twice the recipient of Booker Prizes, is universally acknowledged . . . it's a rich and illuminating coda to both Mantel's life and career . . . Now we're the ones stumbling along behind the spectral figure of Mantel herself, eager for her every last word'
- Daily Telegraph
'We must be grateful that she has left us this collection of pieces, thoughtfully compiled by Pearson . . . Revisiting these pieces, with their fierce wit, their dark humour and compassion, is like hearing the voice of an old friend you had not expected to encounter again . . . A Memoir of My Former Self is a fine testament to that remarkable imagination - a reminder of what a voice we have lost, and how fortunate we are that she left us so much'
- Observer
'Even her biggest fans will find material new to them. Many of the pieces are of their time, but read together they have a quality of timelessness and prescience. The overall effect is to make the reader feel that Mantel is with us still, communicating from beyond the grave. This collection - much more than the sum of its parts - allows us to see how her theories of life and art knit together . . . Through Pearson's curation, we see Mantel's extraordinary range and depth, the eclecticism of her interests. We get a sense of what shaped her . . . She writes with humour, at times droll, at others razor-sharp. Above all, we get to appreciate the poetry and precision of her prose'
- New Statesman
'Hilary Mantel is worth reading on everything . . . Mordant and witty'
- Literary Review
'The range of subjects is magnificent . . . She can create character in a few lines . . . open at any page for treasures and gold'
- i Paper
'Her death at the age of 70 last September still feels like a tragedy. Open the pages of this book and that feeling hardens into certainty. What a talent we lost. Her sentences leap off the page, her range is exceptional . . . You never waste a moment reading Hilary Mantel . . . There wasn't much she couldn't do'
- Evening Standard
'In this dazzling posthumous collection of previously published and original writings . . . Mantel's idiosyncratic and magisterial voice comes through on every page, carrying readers across an astonishing array of subject matter with ease. This is a treasure'
- Publishers Weekly
'A smart, deft, meticulous, thoughtful writer, with such a grasp of the dark and spidery corners of human nature'
- Margaret Atwood
'One of the very greatest of our writers; poetic and profound prose with an incomparable feel for the texture of history'
- Simon Schama
'Mantel was a queen of literature . . . her reign was long, varied and uncontested'
- Maggie O'Farrell
'Mantel bristled with intelligence, looked at everything, saw everything . . . With the uneasy energy of her early life, Mantel made rigorous and unsettling work about history, the body and the unknowable'
- Anne Enright