The Assassination of Hilary Mantel

In September this year, the country lost one of its greatest authors, Dame Hilary Mantel MBE. Although most famous for Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, another of her books was the controversial The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, which caused quite a stir. 

In 2015, the late Toby J Cole, a near neighbour of Mantel's during her time living in Knaphill, Woking mischievously created a book of short stories, The Assassination of Hilary Mantel & Other Brookwood Asylum Shorts. 

One reviewer describes the book as a fantastic set of gothic modern-day short stories - all with a common theme: they are set in and around a Victorian asylum (now converted to luxury housing) whose walls and grounds still echo its dark past. Each story is unique, with each having a tightly-written plot and strong individual protagonists.

Cover image of book originally appeared in the London Illustrated News

 

About the book:

A famous author upsets the establishment by writing a book. They come gunning for her. Can you write what you like as fiction without repercussions? Can she survive? A woman has a nervous breakdown. Can she walk backwards to happiness? The Asylum Bats have been feeding for a hundred and fifty years and are still hungry. These and other tales from The Brookwood Asylum show that the soul and secrets of an old building continue to echo through the years. This was novelist Toby Cole’s second and, sadly, his last book.

The short stories... 

 

1 The Assassination of Hilary Mantel

2 The Woman Who Walked Backwards

3 The Asylum Feeders

4 The Asylum Nurse

5 Electro-convulsive Therapy

6 The Hospital Barber

7 How to Dispose of a Wizard

8 Asylum Superheroes

Buy the Book 

Toby J Cole

 

Toby J Cole spent the first six years of his working life as a registered nurse. He later went on to conduct police mentoring in Iraq and armed protection in Afghanistan. Toby died in September 2020. His first novel, Beyond the Pales, a crime novel, is set at Brookwood Cemetery, the largest cemetery in Western Europe. A sequel was intended but was never completed owing to his untimely death. Sad to say, when an independent author passes away, in time, unless the family or someone else has had the good mind to harness their legacy, a whole body of work could be lost forever. More About Toby's Writing

 

The Death of Dame Hilary Mantel

Former Knaphill resident and author Dame Hilary Mantel dies... I am sad to report the death of Dame Hilary Mantel in Exeter, Devon, on Thursday, 22 September, writes Mal Foster.

Aged 70, she was the acclaimed author of the Booker Prize-winning novel Wolf Hall and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. The trilogy's final book, The Mirror & The Light, was published in 2020 and became an instant Sunday Times bestseller.

Hilary Mantel, 6 July 1952 - 22 September 2022

Mantel had strong Woking connections, living with her husband, Gerald McEwan, in a penthouse at Florence House, which was once part of Brookwood Hospital in Knaphill. Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies were written during her ten years at the iconic residence.

The couple later moved to Budleigh Salterton in Devon but would often return to the Woking area to visit friends when travelling to London and the home counties to appear at various functions and in the media.

Indeed, I last saw Hilary with Gerald in January 2019, in Sainsbury’s, Knaphill, just before the Covid 19 outbreak whilst they were on one of those visits. In earlier days, I had corresponded with Gerald, who had always taken an interest in our local community.

Florence House, Knaphill
where Mantel lived with her husband, Gerald

in the early 2000s

In 2014, Hilary famously brought about the attention of the police following the fictionalised account of the murder of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1983. The short story entitled, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher led Mantel to respond to allies of Thatcher by saying, ‘Bringing in the police for an investigation was beyond anything I could have planned or hoped for because it immediately exposes them to ridicule.’ And it did!

Mal Foster

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

 

1926-2022

The 'impact' of sculptor, Sean Henry on Woking

The Woking Writers’ Collective has enhanced many of its posts here on the blog and on Twitter with photographs of the sculptures by Woking-born Sean Henry that are situated around the town. These are now on permanent display.  Sean Henry is married with three children and now lives in Winchester, Hants.

Sean Henry with two of his works which are now on display in Henry Plaza at Victoria Place, Woking
Pic: Courtesy Sean Henry 

 

It’s time for The Woking Writers' Collective to fully acknowledge Sean Henry’s impact on Woking and his fine sculptures, which are crafted in the human form...

 

Sean Henry's, The Wanderer

One of the sculptures is ‘The Wanderer’, which many would have seen outside the town-side of Woking railway station. In 2013 he was originally on display in Bad Homburg, Germany. A couple of years later, the statue popped up in Sydney, Australia, before being transported to its current location here in Woking.

Sleeping Man, Woking

The addition of Sean Henry’s statues to Woking town centre has given the whole place a cultural feel, complimenting the already popular The War of the Worlds Martian tripod as depicted in the famous H.G. Wells’ novel, and of course The Lightbox museum along Victoria Way.  

 

Greg Freeman and Henry's The Standing Man
Pic: Courtesy Woking News & Mail

The statues have also inspired West Byfleet poet Greg Freeman to put pen to paper, writing a series of back-stories which were published in his 2021 collection, Marples Must Go, under the subtitle, All the Lonely People. 

Above, Walking Woman, Commercial Way, Standing Man, Jubilee Square, 

Seated Man, Woking Railway Station,

and Standing Woman, Peacocks Centre, Woking

You can find out much, much more about Sean and his work on his website @  https://www.seanhenry.com/

Original photographs by Mal Foster

“What now? I’m at the fictional crossroads…”, says Mal Foster

My latest novel, Fluke’s Cradle, was published in April, a book I’m very proud of, but one I fear is also very difficult to follow...

Signing copies of Fluke's Cradle at its official launch in Knaphill, Woking

 

It’s my fifth novel and, Eddie Noble is its protagonist. Like, Tommy Compton, Jack Compton and Harry Rogers from my other books,  they’re all what you might call vulnerable types, the kind of lost souls my lovely loyal band of readers have always endeared to. 

Now though, do I break the mould? Change direction, genre? Do I write from a different perspective and change the protagonist’s voice?  

The idea for a new novel is very much in its infancy. A crime and mystery affair, linking two very true but separate stories as I combine a missing person’s case in the south with a shocking murder in the north. 

As with any good fiction based on a true story (or stories), there's always a need to take reality and give it a full makeover. During which period do I set it? There must be subplots and a backdrop. Who will be the supporting characters, and where will they come from? From there, poetic licence and the imagination can run riot!

My subconscious has always acted as my spirit guide, told me what to say, and showed me where to put the words… It feverishly combats any fatigue or writer’s block, as some people might call it. It creates and fuels direction. 

I’ve always found that the battle is virtually won once the first chapter is written down. Then, after a few months, and with something that resembles a finished manuscript, I experience a sense of semi-achievement, whilst knowing that the arduous editing process and the tricky route to publication is yet to come. 

After each book has been sent to the publisher, I've always wondered, how the hell did I write that? How? 

Now though, this person, this voice inside my head, matters as I need him to make the next book happen. The same voice that once told me, “The pen is mightier than the sword!” Even though I write using a laptop, of course! 

www.malfoster.co.uk

 

Harriet's twelfth novel, due out in November!

Many of you by now will be familiar with Harriet Steel’s Inspector de Silva mystery series... 

Harriet Steel

Harriet’s twelfth book in the series, Stardust in Nula, is scheduled for a November publication. It features Inspector Shanti de Silva, a middle-aged policeman who moved from the island's capital, Colombo, to the beautiful hill country in search of a more peaceful life for himself and his British wife, Jane.  The landscape is idyllic, with the vibrant green of tea plantations cloaking the hills, lush trees and flowers, and abundant wildlife. But even in the midst of this paradise, murder and mayhem are never far away, and life isn’t as quiet as Inspector de Silva had planned. 

Harriet says, “Writing a series has its challenges, and if I’m honest, I never expected this one to run to so many books. However, it’s been a delight to see how readers have taken Shanti and Jane and their world into their hearts.  Their appetite for more stories doesn’t seem to diminish, and so as long as that’s the case, I’m happy to dream up new adventures. I aim to give readers an entertaining puzzle to solve in the style of Agatha Christie without a lot of gore. "

'Stardust in Nuala' is due out in November

"As far as inspiration goes, I feel that I know my characters pretty well by now. When they start jumping about on the page,  ideas usually flow quite easily. In the case of Stardust in Nuala my starting point was the film world. I expect most people have heard of Bollywood, but it’s perhaps less well known that India had a thriving film industry long before Bollywood, with all its glitz and glamour, burst on the scene in the 1960s. It was lots of fun researching this earlier period. 

I can’t really reveal the inspiration for the novel’s subplot without giving too much away, so I’ll just say that it was sparked off by a report I saw of a very strange but comical incident that happened a few years ago in Vancouver.” 

All Harriet’s books are available via Amazon, and you can find out more by visiting her website at: https://harrietsteel.com/

Other books in The Inspector de Silva mystery series