Hilary Mantel: Is Cromwell 'a hero for our times'?

There was so much to talk to Hilary Mantel about! Thomas Cromwell as an historical figure, Thomas Cromwell as a character, politicians today, politicians yesterday, Holbein's portraits, her collaboration with actors...

Here's what she said about Holbein, and whether politicians today are as smart as Cromwell. The rest is in my interview for The Washington Post.

Did Holbein’s portraits of these historical figures influence your characterisation?

It’s a source of very good evidence, and sometimes if there isn’t a Holbein portrait you’re lost. The interesting thing in Cromwell’s case, though, is the disjunction between Holbein’s portrait and what his contemporaries say about him. The portrait is of a still, watchful, vigilant, narrow-eyed, pretty unattractive man. Cromwell’s contemporaries describe him as having a great deal of charm. It’s something I work away at, that contradiction.

Are any politicians now as smart as Cromwell?

I think there are very few people in the history of the world quite as smart as Cromwell. He’s a combination of brains and audacity and a kind of visionary capacity as well. What happens usually in politics if you have the visionaries and you have the men of action, and they don’t usually coincide in one person. But Cromwell could see the big picture, but he was also intensely practical. He knew how to make things happen I don’t really like though these comparisons. Cromwell and his contemporaries weren’t there to act as a kind of rehearsal for us. They have to be seen in their own light. So although there are all sorts of contemporary resonances, my stories aren’t a disguised way of writing about the present. They really are about the past.

Roz Chast on Being Funny

Perhaps best known for her New Yorker cartoons, Roz Chast published a memoir last year, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? about her elderly parents’ illness and death. While she found writing her latest children's book, Around the Clock, comic relief, it isn't, Chast says in our interview today in The Washington Post, all so different from writing for adults.

Chast spoke about using humor in the memoir, in this section below which adds to today's Post story.

In your memoir, you describe a complicated family life with a lot of humor. Is that your coping mechanism?

I don’t know. I’m not objective enough. For me, this was what it was like. I wanted to describe my relationship with my parents, including how complicated it was. This wasn’t going to be some BS-y thing, -- it was difficult but we all embraced at the end and we all learned lessons about life. I didn’t learn any lessons about life. I wanted to tell it how it was. And we’re all going to experience this. Our bodies are going to give out.

Are you still holding the desire to “make it right” with your mother?

Yes. I think I probably always will, probably because I have kids and I get so much joy from those relationships. Sometimes it seems there’s a whole part of life that my mother missed. But my parents were proud of me, and I know they cared about me. And I imagine they knew I loved them. If I didn’t care about them, I wouldn’t have written the book.

A panel from "Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?"