Booker-winning author Hilary Mantel, dies at 70, confirms HarperCollins UK

Booker Prize-winning author Hilary Mantel, the author of the best-selling Wolf Hall trilogy, has died aged 70, her publisher said on Friday.

In a tweet from its official account, HarperCollins UK noted her date of death to be September 22. However, the reason of her demise is not yet known.

In a statement, her publisher said: "We are heartbroken at the death of our beloved author, Dame Hilary Mantel and our thoughts are with her friends and family, especially her husband, Gerald.

This is a devastating loss and we can only be grateful she left us with such a magnificent body of work," it said.

Born on July 6, 1952 in Glossop, Derbyshire in England, Mantel received the prestigious Booker Prize twice, for 2009's Wolf Hall, the first in the Thomas Cromwell series, and the 2012 follow-up Bring Up the Bodies.

The conclusion to her trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, was published in 2020 to much critical acclaim, became a fiction best-seller and was longlisted for The Booker Prize 2020.

Dame Hilary was the first woman to receive the Booker Prize twice.