Hilary Mantel: ‘Human beings are such miracles, yet so defectively assembled’

What is your earliest memory?
Lying in my pram, watching the light break up as treetops rustled in the wind.

Who was or still is your mentor?
I dedicated my first book to my friend Christian Bevington and her family. I met Christian, who has recently retired as a judge, when I was 18. She was a few years my senior and in my tutorial group at the London School of Economics. She set me an example of how to deal with life gracefully, and I hold it in mind even if I can’t always imitate it. Her persevering generosity has helped me through dark times.

How fit are you?
When I was small, an unkind doctor called me “Little Miss Neverwell”. Now I’m Great Dame Neverwell. My health is unpredictable and a daily source of tension. But I am always looking for improvement.

Tell me about an animal you have loved.
It was in the Bevington household above that I first saw Tertius and exclaimed, “That is the Prince of Cats.” He was a chocolate-brown Burmese and he became my watch-cat when he was eight years old. Active, happy and vigilant, he lived to be 22. When my husband and I formed a company, we took him as a role model and called it Tertius Enterprises.

Risk or caution, which has defined your life more?
In small things, extreme caution: “Take your raincoat. In fact, why not take two?” But for a new country or a project, I’ve been ready to jump. In big decisions you seldom have all the information you need. If you hesitate and rationalise for too long, your courage slips away.

What trait do you find most irritating in others?
Toryism.

What trait do you find most irritating in yourself?
Where to begin? I use hearing aids but wander around without them, making inaccurate guesses about what’s happening. I employ unsourced quotations and faded locutions that no one understands. I don’t even finish my sentences . . . 

What drives you on?
Curiosity: the need to know how a sentence might end. Although I can’t help quoting Belloc:
“I’m tired of love; I’m still more tired of rhyme.
But money gives me pleasure all the time.”

Do you believe in an afterlife?
Yes. I can’t imagine how it might work. However, the universe is not limited by what I can imagine.

Which is more puzzling, the existence of suffering or its frequent absence?
Neither puzzles me. Human beings are such miracles, yet so defectively assembled: angels and beasts, murdering and redeeming in the same breath.

Name your favourite river.
I saw the Thames first when I was 13. I wrote a poem to it. I’m grateful I don’t have the manuscript. That summer I went by water from Richmond to Hampton Court. A consequential day, as it turned out.

What would you have done differently?
Run away from certain people who turned out to be “toxic”. I don’t have an inbuilt toximeter. Perhaps one should be retrofitted.

“The Wolf Hall Picture Book” by Hilary Mantel, Ben Miles and George Miles (4th Estate) is out on September 15

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