London, Sep 24: Hilary Mantel, the Booker Prize-winning author who turned Tudor power politics into page-turning fiction in the acclaimed "Wolf Hall" trilogy of historical novels, has died, her publisher said Friday. She was 70.
Mantel died "suddenly yet peacefully" on Thursday surrounded by close family and friends after suffering a stroke, publisher HarperCollins said.
Mantel is credited with reenergizing historical fiction with "Wolf Hall" and two sequels about the 16th-century English powerbroker Thomas Cromwell, right-hand man to King Henry VIII — and in Mantel's hands, the charismatic antihero of a bloody, high-stakes political drama.
The publisher said Mantel was "one of the greatest English novelists of this century."
"Her beloved works are considered modern classics. She will be greatly missed," it said in a statement.
Author J.K. Rowling tweeted: "We've lost a genius." Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it is "impossible to overstate the significance of the literary legacy Hilary Mantel leaves behind."
Mantel won the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction twice, for "Wolf Hall" in 2009 and its sequel "Bring Up the Bodies" in 2012. Both were adapted for the stage and television.
Mantel is survived by her husband.
