Posted on 02/22/2013 12:53:19 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper
Mantel, who has won the Man Booker Prize twice, said the Duchess had a "perfect plastic smile", being viewed as having “no personality of her own, entirely defined by what she wore”.
Her remarks, made as part of a lecture entitled Royal Bodies, have been widely publicised across the globe and have already been condemned by Prime Minister David Cameron.
While she has not yet commented on the furore, Mantel will no doubt be pleased to hear of one positive side-effect, as sales of her book have rocketed.
Wolf Hall, the first of her trilogy about Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII, has already shot up the Amazon book charts, with sales more than doubling in the last 24 hours.
It has risen from 15th place to 7th, up 200 per cent, with sales of the sequel Bring Up the Bodies also seeing a significant increase of 69 per cent.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
If anybody troubled to read the full text of Mantel’s lecture, they would see that her criticism was not of Kate Middleton herself but of the way an artificial brand image of royal wives has been created by the British media for many centuries. Not surprisingly, the tabloid press currently responsible for this have reacted furiously: somebody has actually dared to criticise the way they exploit women.
Oh, and by the way, Mantel’s Cromwell novels are superb.
The text of the lecture is at:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n04/hilary-mantel/royal-bodies
Having to wait at the dentist and a choice of 27 US/PEOPLE magazines it is apparent that (Ms?) Middleton has a very nice and natural smile.
If she is acting, a pretty penny is to be had giving lessons to many senior lefty females.
Unlikely, for that group seldom if ever smiles.
Looking forward to reading "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies". The one I'm reading is OK, but I suspect the Tudor novels are better.
The entire concept of royalty and the Kleptocracy known as the ‘House of Windsor’ is repulsive to me. They were imported from Germany. Elizabeth’s forebear George I did not speak a word of English when he was made “king”. There is no such thing as a “royal”. And it is pathetic how the Brits obsess over these empty vessels while their once-great nation is slowly but inevitably being taken over by Islam.
1—The current Royal Family were not ‘imported’ from Germany, the Hanoverian line inherited the throne because of their SCOTTISH (Stuart) blood, they were the next Protestant line. After the Dutch (protestant Stuart) line of William and Mary died with the childless Queen Anne.
George I grandmother was Princess Elizabeth, who was Scottish, and the daughter of James VI of Scotland/James I of England and Ireland.
2—I am a British patriot, but no royalist and share your dislike for the fawning.
3—Britain has not been, is not being and will not be taken over by Islam. Please stop believing and typing such crap. I find it frightening that millions of Americans actually believe this nonsense.
They are. That French Revolution novel was one of her first, and it shows it. It is, as you say, OK, but gets bogged down in rather tedious narratives of the historical action, in an attempt to be faithful to the documentary record.
The Thomas Cromwell novels couldn't be more different. There's comparatively little narrative action (for which, of course, there's much less documentary evidence anyway); but the complex characterisation, especially of Cromwell himself and Henry VIII, is superb.
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