Hilary Mantel [The Reith Lectures]

Art can bring the dead back to life, argues the late novelist Hilary Mantel, starting with the story of her own great-grandmother. 'We sense the dead have a vital force still,' she says. 'They have something to tell us, something we need to understand. Using fiction and drama, we try to gain that understanding.' She describes how and why she began to write fiction about the past, and how her view of her trade has evolved. We cannot hear or see the past, she says, but 'we can listen and look'.

This was the first of a series of five lectures recorded in 2017, in which Dame Hilary discussed the role that history plays in our culture. How can we understand the past, she asks, and how can we convey its nature today? Above all, she believed, we must all try to respect the past amid all its strangeness and complexity.

This lecture is being rebroadcast as a tribute to Dame Hilary. It was recorded in front of an audience at Halle St Peter's in Manchester, followed by a question and answer session chaired by Sue Lawley.

Producer: Jim Frank
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Hugh Levinson

Art can bring the dead back to life, argues the late novelist Hilary Mantel.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

Art can bring the dead back to life, argues the late novelist Hilary Mantel, starting with the story of her own great-grandmother. 'We sense the dead have a vital force still,' she says. 'They have something to tell us, something we need to understand. Using fiction and drama, we try to gain that understanding.' She describes how and why she began to write fiction about the past, and how her view of her trade has evolved. We cannot hear or see the past, she says, but 'we can listen and look'.

This was the first of a series of five lectures recorded in 2017, in which Dame Hilary discussed the role that history plays in our culture. How can we understand the past, she asks, and how can we convey its nature today? Above all, she believed, we must all try to respect the past amid all its strangeness and complexity.

This lecture is being rebroadcast as a tribute to Dame Hilary. It was recorded in front of an audience at Halle St Peter's in Manchester, followed by a question and answer session chaired by Sue Lawley.

Producer: Jim Frank
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Hugh Levinson

Art can bring the dead back to life, argues the late novelist Hilary Mantel.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

Art can bring the dead back to life, argues the late novelist Hilary Mantel, starting with the story of her own great-grandmother. 'We sense the dead have a vital force still,' she says. 'They have something to tell us, something we need to understand. Using fiction and drama, we try to gain that understanding.' She describes how and why she began to write fiction about the past, and how her view of her trade has evolved. We cannot hear or see the past, she says, but 'we can listen and look'.

This was the first of a series of five lectures recorded in 2017, in which Dame Hilary discussed the role that history plays in our culture. How can we understand the past, she asks, and how can we convey its nature today? Above all, she believed, we must all try to respect the past amid all its strangeness and complexity.

This lecture is being rebroadcast as a tribute to Dame Hilary. It was recorded in front of an audience at Halle St Peter's in Manchester, followed by a question and answer session chaired by Sue Lawley.

Producer: Jim Frank
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Hugh Levinson

Art can bring the dead back to life, argues the late novelist Hilary Mantel.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

Art can bring the dead back to life, argues the late novelist Hilary Mantel, starting with the story of her own great-grandmother. 'We sense the dead have a vital force still,' she says. 'They have something to tell us, something we need to understand. Using fiction and drama, we try to gain that understanding.' She describes how and why she began to write fiction about the past, and how her view of her trade has evolved. We cannot hear or see the past, she says, but 'we can listen and look'.

This was the first of a series of five lectures recorded in 2017, in which Dame Hilary discussed the role that history plays in our culture. How can we understand the past, she asks, and how can we convey its nature today? Above all, she believed, we must all try to respect the past amid all its strangeness and complexity.

This lecture is being rebroadcast as a tribute to Dame Hilary. It was recorded in front of an audience at Halle St Peter's in Manchester, followed by a question and answer session chaired by Sue Lawley.

Producer: Jim Frank
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Editor: Hugh Levinson

Art can bring the dead back to life, argues the late novelist Hilary Mantel.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

How do we construct our pictures of the past, including both truth and myth, asks best-selling author Hilary Mantel. Where do we get our evidence? She warns of two familiar errors: either romanticising the past, or seeing it as a gory horror-show. It is tempting, but often condescending, to seek modern parallels for historical events. "Are we looking into the past, or looking into a mirror?" she asks. "Dead strangers...did not live and die so we could draw lessons from them." Above all, she says, we must all try to respect the past amid all its strangeness and complexity.

Over the course of the lecture series, Dame Hilary discusses the role that history plays in our culture. She asks how we view the past and what our relationship is with the dead.

The programme is recorded in front of an audience at Middle Temple in London, followed by a question and answer session.

The Reith Lectures are chaired by Sue Lawley and produced by Jim Frank.

How do we construct our pictures of the past asks Hilary Mantel.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

How do we construct our pictures of the past, including both truth and myth, asks best-selling author Hilary Mantel. Where do we get our evidence? She warns of two familiar errors: either romanticising the past, or seeing it as a gory horror-show. It is tempting, but often condescending, to seek modern parallels for historical events. "Are we looking into the past, or looking into a mirror?" she asks. "Dead strangers...did not live and die so we could draw lessons from them." Above all, she says, we must all try to respect the past amid all its strangeness and complexity.

Over the course of the lecture series, Dame Hilary discusses the role that history plays in our culture. She asks how we view the past and what our relationship is with the dead.

The programme is recorded in front of an audience at Middle Temple in London, followed by a question and answer session.

The Reith Lectures are chaired by Sue Lawley and produced by Jim Frank.

How do we construct our pictures of the past asks Hilary Mantel.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

How do we construct our pictures of the past, including both truth and myth, asks best-selling author Hilary Mantel. Where do we get our evidence? She warns of two familiar errors: either romanticising the past, or seeing it as a gory horror-show. It is tempting, but often condescending, to seek modern parallels for historical events. "Are we looking into the past, or looking into a mirror?" she asks. "Dead strangers...did not live and die so we could draw lessons from them." Above all, she says, we must all try to respect the past amid all its strangeness and complexity.

Over the course of the lecture series, Dame Hilary discusses the role that history plays in our culture. She asks how we view the past and what our relationship is with the dead.

The programme is recorded in front of an audience at Middle Temple in London, followed by a question and answer session.

The Reith Lectures are chaired by Sue Lawley and produced by Jim Frank.

How do we construct our pictures of the past asks Hilary Mantel.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

The story of how an obsessive relationship with history killed the young Polish writer Stanislawa Przybyszewska, told by best-selling author, Hilary Mantel. The brilliant Przybyszewska wrote gargantuan plays and novels about the French Revolution, in particular about the revolutionary leader Robespierre. She lived in self-willed poverty and isolation and died unknown in 1934. But her work, so painfully achieved, did survive her. Was her sacrifice worthwhile? "She embodied the past until her body ceased to be," Dame Hilary says. "Multiple causes of death were recorded, but actually she died of Robespierre."

Over the course of these five lectures, she discusses the role that history plays in our lives. How do we view the past, she asks, and what is our relationship with the dead? The lecture is recorded before an audience in the ancient Vleeshuis in Antwerp, a city which features in Mantel's novels about Thomas Cromwell and the cosmopolitan world of the early Tudors. The lecture is followed by a question and answer session chaired by Sue Lawley.

The producer is Jim Frank.

The story of how historical obsession killed a Polish writer, told by Hilary Mantel.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

The story of how an obsessive relationship with history killed the young Polish writer Stanislawa Przybyszewska, told by best-selling author, Hilary Mantel. The brilliant Przybyszewska wrote gargantuan plays and novels about the French Revolution, in particular about the revolutionary leader Robespierre. She lived in self-willed poverty and isolation and died unknown in 1934. But her work, so painfully achieved, did survive her. Was her sacrifice worthwhile? "She embodied the past until her body ceased to be," Dame Hilary says. "Multiple causes of death were recorded, but actually she died of Robespierre."

Over the course of these five lectures, she discusses the role that history plays in our lives. How do we view the past, she asks, and what is our relationship with the dead? The lecture is recorded before an audience in the ancient Vleeshuis in Antwerp, a city which features in Mantel's novels about Thomas Cromwell and the cosmopolitan world of the early Tudors. The lecture is followed by a question and answer session chaired by Sue Lawley.

The producer is Jim Frank.

The story of how historical obsession killed a Polish writer, told by Hilary Mantel.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

The story of how an obsessive relationship with history killed the young Polish writer Stanislawa Przybyszewska, told by best-selling author, Hilary Mantel. The brilliant Przybyszewska wrote gargantuan plays and novels about the French Revolution, in particular about the revolutionary leader Robespierre. She lived in self-willed poverty and isolation and died unknown in 1934. But her work, so painfully achieved, did survive her. Was her sacrifice worthwhile? "She embodied the past until her body ceased to be," Dame Hilary says. "Multiple causes of death were recorded, but actually she died of Robespierre."

Over the course of these five lectures, she discusses the role that history plays in our lives. How do we view the past, she asks, and what is our relationship with the dead? The lecture is recorded before an audience in the ancient Vleeshuis in Antwerp, a city which features in Mantel's novels about Thomas Cromwell and the cosmopolitan world of the early Tudors. The lecture is followed by a question and answer session chaired by Sue Lawley.

The producer is Jim Frank.

The story of how historical obsession killed a Polish writer, told by Hilary Mantel.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

The lecture is recorded in front of an audience in Exeter, near Mantel's adopted home in East Devon, followed by a question and answer session. The Reith Lectures are chaired by Sue Lawley and produced by Jim Frank.

Hilary Mantel on how historical fiction can make the past come to life.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

Hilary Mantel on how fiction changes when adapted for stage or screen. Each medium, she says, draws a different potential from the original. She argues that fiction, if written well, doesn't betray history, but enhances it. When fiction is turned into theatre, or into a film or TV, the same applies - as long as we understand that adaptation is not a secondary process or a set of grudging compromises, but an act of creation in itself. And this matters. "Without art, what have you to inform you about the past?" she asks. "What lies beyond is the unedited flicker of closed-circuit TV."

The programme is recorded in Stratford-Upon-Avon in front of an audience, with a question and answer session, chaired by Sue Lawley. The producer is Jim Frank.

Hilary Mantel on how fiction changes when adapted for stage or screen.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

Hilary Mantel on how fiction changes when adapted for stage or screen. Each medium, she says, draws a different potential from the original. She argues that fiction, if written well, doesn't betray history, but enhances it. When fiction is turned into theatre, or into a film or TV, the same applies - as long as we understand that adaptation is not a secondary process or a set of grudging compromises, but an act of creation in itself. And this matters. "Without art, what have you to inform you about the past?" she asks. "What lies beyond is the unedited flicker of closed-circuit TV."

The programme is recorded in Stratford-Upon-Avon in front of an audience, with a question and answer session, chaired by Sue Lawley. The producer is Jim Frank.

Hilary Mantel on how fiction changes when adapted for stage or screen.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

Hilary Mantel on how fiction changes when adapted for stage or screen. Each medium, she says, draws a different potential from the original. She argues that fiction, if written well, doesn't betray history, but enhances it. When fiction is turned into theatre, or into a film or TV, the same applies - as long as we understand that adaptation is not a secondary process or a set of grudging compromises, but an act of creation in itself. And this matters. "Without art, what have you to inform you about the past?" she asks. "What lies beyond is the unedited flicker of closed-circuit TV."

The programme is recorded in Stratford-Upon-Avon in front of an audience, with a question and answer session, chaired by Sue Lawley. The producer is Jim Frank.

Hilary Mantel on how fiction changes when adapted for stage or screen.

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.