Giving Up the Ghost

St Just Monday Morning Reading Group 25th February 2019.

Giving up the ghost. Mantel, Hilary.

Nearly all of the reading group found this an extremely interesting book, wonderfully well written, easy to relate to (one reader compared it to being 'wrapped up in a duvet'), and at the same time horrifying (because of the issues it discusses).

Aspects which we thought particularly good were the descriptions of various things – a migraine, and a poster of Elvis Presley were cited – which were so realistic as to leap off the page; and the discussion of how women were treated in this era (the 1950s), especially divorced women, and their children.

We talked about the selective nature of the author's material and how she chose to tell her own story, not that of her brothers, or her husband, or her step-father, and how this was different from a chronological narrative. We discussed the passages in which she says she thought she was going to turn into a boy, and dressed up as a knight in armour and enacted male roles, and whether this was a possible transgender issue or not – we decided that it was not, and was more likely the result of social and educational conditioning and the shortage of female fictional heroes at the time.

We spent some time discussing the author's medical condition, endometriosis, and the appalling way that she was treated for it: disbelief and denial, followed by treatment for mental illness. We talked about our own experiences of this illness and related issues and how the medical profession, in the era under discussion in this book, dealt with the matter. The unfortunate Hilary Mantel had to diagnose herself, an action which we all found only too believable from our own experiences, and even after surgery she was not completely cured and had further difficulties. It was, we all thought, absolutely astonishing that under such circumstances she managed to write anything at all.

Further points noted were the author's legal training, with reference to Thomas Cromwell's profession in Wolf Hall; and how sad it was that the author was not able to have children, her over-purchasing of household goods later on reflecting her perceived loss.

The only negative criticisms of this book were the author's use of adult expressions for childlike concepts, and the fact that a couple of readers found it hard to get started. These were minor points however, and on the whole everyone enjoyed reading this book and would like to read more of her work.