The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher – Hilary Mantel’s alluring portraits of interior disquiet

Hilary Mantel’s short stories explore isolation, pain and distress in glinting, if at times melodramatic, prose

Robert Collins
Sunday 28 September 2014 09.00 BST

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ince it was announced earlier this year, the title of Hilary Mantel’s collection of 10 stories has dangled the possibility that the author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies was about to unleash a dissection of Thatcher’s time in power to rival her Man Booker-winning portrait of Tudor intrigue.