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To a Brit of my generation, one of the most objectionable things about [Margaret] Thatcher is her falsity. She is a total construct. For one thing, she had a made-over accent.

Hilary Mantel

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Hilary Mantel
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: July 6
Essayist
Film Critic
Literary Critic
Novelist
Poet Lawyer
Writer
Hilary Mary Thompson
Dame Hilary Mary Mantel
Made
Construct
Things
Accent
Constructs
Brit
Accents
Objectionable
Total
Falsity
Generation
Brits
Generations
Thatcher
Thing
Margaret

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I'm a very organised and rational and linear thinker and you have to stop all that to write a novel.
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I think it is going to take another fifty years for the report to be in. If I were to give a preliminary report, I would say that [Margaret Thatcher] wrecked this country.
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[Margaret Thatcher] admitted to being the daughter of her father but not the daughter of her mother!
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There is so much else in the world that is more interesting [ than monarchy].
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It follows that if you are not a mother you are not a grandmother. Your life has become unpunctuated, whereas the lives of other women around you have these distinct phases.
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My concern is less the monarchy as such than the attempt of a fading colonial power to hang onto grandeur.
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I think if the monarchy were removed tomorrow, it wouldn't have a huge effect on the national mind-set.
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When narratives fracture, when words fail, I take consolation from the part of my life that always works: the stationery order. The mail-order stationery people supply every need from royal blue Quink to a dazzling variety of portable hard drives.
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At New Year's he had given Anne a present of silver forks with handles of rock crystal. He hopes she will use them to eat with, not to stick in people.
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[T]he heart is like any other organ, you can weigh it on a scale.
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The writer I adore is Ivy Compton-Burnett.I couldn't get more than a few pages in when I first read her. In many ways, she is very clumsy and her plots are rubbish. But we don't read her for that. There are pages and pages of dialogue. What it requires is real effort and attention.
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