Hilary Mantel, the double Booker Prize winning author of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, has hit the front pages due to some disparaging remarks she made about the Duchess of Cambridge in a recent lecture at the British Museum. Since the object of her lecture was to question the validity of a monarchy that chooses to make a display of its royal ladies her remarks have probably been quoted out of context but two things arise from their publication on the front page of a national newspaper today.
One is that, while I am sure the Duchess of Cambridge is old enough and intelligent enough to know not to take these things to heart, it is rather ill-bred to direct spiteful personal remarks at someone who cannot hit back in kind.
Secondly, I have to question the timing of this story. Hilary Mantel made her comments two weeks ago but they have hit the papers just as the government is about to introduce legislation to place the strongest restrictions on the freedom of the press seen in the UK in decades. It is difficult not to come to the conclusion that the timing of this story, following closely on the row about the Princess being photographed on a public beach in a bikini, is grist to the mill to those who are campaigning for ever greater restrictions on the British press.
I cannot think that Hilary Mantel as a writer, and one in particular specialising in Tudor History, can be unaware of the consequences of state censorship. The lesson of history is that state censorship, however well-intentioned, is never a good thing for writers.
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