British author Hilary Mantel has come under vicious fire from the press and lawmakers for her recent fictional short story, "The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher — August 6, 1983," but she's not backing down an inch.
"I think it would be unconscionable to say this is too dark — we can’t examine it. We can’t be running away from history. We have to face it head on, because the repercussions of Mrs. Thatcher’s reign have fed the nation. It is still resonating," she told BBC, as reported in
The Guardian.
"Whatever your view of her she was a shaper of history."
Mantel, 62, said her idea for the short story, in which Thatcher is murdered by an assassin who sneaks into her home, came from a time in 1983 when she spotted Thatcher standing unguarded in the street near her home, formed an imaginary gun with her thumb and forefinger, and fantasized that she could easily have killed Thatcher, The Guardian reports.
"Immediately your eye measures the distance. I thought, "If I wasn’t me, if I was someone else, she’d be dead," she told The Guardian.
The story caused an immediate furor in England, given that
Thatcher, 87, known as the "Iron Lady," died just over a year ago from a stroke on April 8, 2013. The Conservative Party leader, a close friend of President Ronald Reagan, served as Prime Minister of England from 1979 to 1990.
Mantel, no fan of Thatcher, has said she feels a "boiling detestation" for her and has referred to her as an anti-feminist "psychological transvestite." She came under fire from Lord Timothy Bell, a close friend of Thatcher, who told the Sunday Times, "Mantel needs to see a therapist. If somebody admits they want to assassinate somebody, surely the police should investigate. This is in unquestionably bad taste," the
Independent reported.
Conservative MP Nadine Dorries told the
Mail Online, "I cannot quite believe it. I am gutted because Hilary Mantel is one of my favorite authors.
"It is shocking as it is so close (to when Thatcher died) and she still has living family and children. It is about a character whose demise is so recent."
Tory MP Conor Burns told the
Times, "I also never cease to be amazed by the disordered psyche of some on the left."
However, in response, Mantel told the Daily Mail, "I am concerned with respect. I’m not concerned with taste. I would have happily concluded the story in her lifetime but couldn't – it was my technical difficulty, not any delicacy. I believe in walking that line.
"You mustn't be too timid to risk getting it wrong."
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