The Kingston Readers’ Festival is continuing and this week historical novelist Hilary Mantel will be appearing at All Saints’ Parish Church.

She will be discussing bringing Tudor history to life in her critically acclaimed new book Wolf Hall, which brings the court of Henry VIII to life, as seen through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, the King’s right-hand man.

She spoke to Will Gore.

Will Gore: What do you have planned for your festival appearance?

Hilary Mantel: At the Readers’ Festival, I will be talking about my just-published novel, Wolf Hall. It is about Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith’s son from Putney who fought his way through the ranks of Tudor society and, for almost 10 years, dominated Henry VIII’s government – 10 crucial and vivid years in English history. It is my tenth novel, written to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Henry’s accession.

WG: Why did you pick the Tudor period to write about?

HM: The Tudor story has everything – epic and intimate themes, lust for flesh and for power, seductions and betrayals, secrets and lies. It’s irresistible to an ambitious author and I have a unique angle – no novelist has seen this story from Cromwell’s viewpoint and yet he was at the heart of it.

WG: How does fact and fiction merge in Wolf Hall?

HM: The book’s history is as exact as I can make it. Cromwell’s career as a public man is well-documented. His private life is almost unknown. It is at the frontier of the unknown that a novelist goes to work – using her imagination but building on the best evidence.

WG: Which historical novelists influence your own work?

HM: Among the historical novelists I most admire are Mary Renault, Thomas Keneally, and JG Farrell, whose classic novel, The Siege of Krishnapur, is one of my great favourites. I wouldn’t say these authors have influenced me directly but they have shown me what is possible. There is a huge amount of fiction about the Tudors which doesn’t appeal to me because it is inaccurate and sentimental and not properly respectful of the gap between them and us.

WG: What inspires you to write historical fiction?

HM: I have written contemporary as well as historical fiction but the desire to reanimate the past is what started me writing. I am less interested in kings and queens than in ordinary people who make a difference – original and daring people who change the world.

WG: Any advice for budding writers?

HM: Believe in your own vision, even if it takes years to realise.

Hilary Mantel, All Saints’ Parish Church, Kingston, May 5, 7.30pm, £8/£5, to book tickets and for a full line-up of other Kingston Readers’ Festival events visit kingston.ac.uk/krf