Hilary Mantel has written 12 books and contributed stories and articles to others. She has written 11 novels and one memoir, Giving Up the Ghost.

Her first novel, Every Day is Mother's Day, was published in 1985 and her most recent, Bring Up the Bodies, has just come out (May 2012). Mantel has been a well known and respected writer for many years, and won several awards, but the book that made her nationally famous was Wolf Hall, which won the Man Booker Prize in 2009. This is a historical novel which tells the story of Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to King Henry VIII. It was a best-seller and revived a lot of interest in Tudor history.

Bring Up the Bodies is a sequel to Wolf Hall. It is about many of the same people and events, but focuses on the life of Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII.