Learning to Talk: Short stories

(Paperback)

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In the wake of Hilary Mantel's captivating memoir, GIVING UP THE GHOST, this collection of loosely autobiographical stories locates the transforming moments of a haunted childhood. Published to coincide with their dramatisation on Radio 4's Woman's Hour. This sharp, funny collection of loosely autobiographical stories begins in the nineteen-fifties in an insular northern village 'scoured by bitter winds and rough gossip tongues.' For the child narrator, the only way to survive is to get up, get on, get out. In 'King Billy is a Gentleman', the child must come to terms with the loss of a father and the puzzle of a fading Irish heritage. 'Curved Is the Line of Beauty' is a story of friendship, faith and a near-disaster in a scrap-yard. The title story sees our narrator ironing out her northern vowels with the help of an ex-actress with one lung and a Manchester accent. In 'Third Floor Rising', she watches, dazzled, as her mother carves out a stylish new identity. With a deceptively light touch, Mantel locates the transforming moments of a haunted childhood.

Reviews

ON HILARY MANTEL: 'She writes like an angel ... and it is this angelic prose which turns the reader dizzy with pleasure.' David Robson, Sunday Telegraph 'Mantel can out-write most writers of her generation, male and female.' Maggie Gee, Sunday Times 'Hilary Mantel is a wonderfully unsurprised dissector of human motivation.' Helen Dunmore, Observer 'Mantel writes prose of imperturbable aplomb, crisp with irony and highlighted with deftly placed, elegantly surprising images ... she has a penchant for caustic, spiky heroines and a sardonic ear for dialogue.' Peter Kemp, Sunday Times 'Hilary Mantel is a novelist of remarkable diversity. She writes about curiosity, companionship, art, love, death and eternity. She writes with wit, compassion and great elegance.' Sue Gaisford, Independent on Sunday

Author Bio

Hilary Mantel was born in Derbyshire. She was educated at a convent and later studied law. After ten years abroad in Africa and the Middle East, she returned to Britain in 1985 to make a career as a writer. She is working on her ninth novel.