The Prince of Wales, whose own household has been likened to the “treacherous and opportunistic” world of Wolf Hall, has emerged as a fan of the television adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s novels.
Conferring the honour of Dame Commander of the British Empire on Mantel on Friday, the prince revealed that he was enjoying the drama depicting the life of Henry VIII’s adviser Thomas Cromwell.
The Wolf Hall analogy emerged last week in excerpts from a new biography of Charles which alleged that Clarence House was riddled with backstabbing and infighting akin to the Tudor monarch’s household.
In her book Charles: The Heart of a King, the Time magazine journalist Catherine Mayer writes: “One former householder refers to Clarence House as Wolf Hall, in reference to the treacherous and opportunistic world depicted by Hilary Mantel in her fictionalised account of the rise of Thomas Cromwell under Henry VIII.”
Following her investiture, carried out by Charles at Buckingham Palace, Mantel – twice winner of the Booker prize and who is honoured for services to literature – said: “We talked about the television series of Wolf Hall, which he’s enjoying very much.” When asked if she could imagine any similarity to her novel and Charles’s household, she laughed and said: “I couldn’t possibly comment on that. I think there may be an element of exaggeration there.”
Mantel had been criticised for remarks she made about the Duchess of Cambridge during a lecture at the British Museum in 2013. She described the royal as a “shop-window mannequin”, “gloss-varnished” with no personality and whose only purpose was to breed.
Asked if this had led to any awkwardness during her meeting with Charles, Mantel said: “Not at all. I think that anyone who has dealings with the press is familiar with how this can happen.
“The full text of my lecture has always been available and unfortunately what happened was that a couple of sentences were taken completely out of context and all things turned on its head.
“Far from being a criticism, it was a plea to remember she’s a human being as well as a royal person. It was extremely unfortunate that it was interpreted as a personal criticism.”
At the time, the author had defended her comments, saying: “My lecture and the subsequent essay was actually supportive of the royal family and when I used those words about the Duchess of Cambridge, I was describing the perception of her which has been set up in the tabloid press.”
Mantel’s speech had been a plea to the media over their treatment of royals, she argued.
Mantel has enjoyed huge success with Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, which have also been staged. She is currently working on the final part of the trilogy.
“I haven’t got a finishing date yet because I’ve been very busy with the theatre versions, and novels are unpredictable anyway,” she said. “But it’s going well and we’re hoping in the course of time there might be a third play and maybe a TV series as well.
“I would certainly like to see if we could get people of the same calibre to work on it because, with both the theatre and TV, we have been very lucky to have such an excellent team of people who share my values about drama and history, and just the most wonderful acting talent.”
