Quote by: Hilary Mantel

Let's say I will rip your life apart. Me and my banker friends. How can he explain that to him? The world is not run from where he thinks. Not from border fortresses, not even from Whitehall. The world is run from Antwerp, from Florence, from places he has never imagined; from Lisbon, from where the ships with sails of silk drift west and are burned up in the sun. Not from the castle walls, but from counting houses, not be the call of the bugle, but by the click of the abacus, not by the grate and click of the mechanism of the gun but by the scrape of the pen on the page of the promissory note that pays for the gun and the gunsmith and the powder and shot.


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Author Bio


  • NameHilary Mantel
  • DescriptionEnglish writer
  • BornJuly 6, 1952
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist; Essayist
  • WorksWolf Hall; Bring Up The Bodies
  • AwardsCommander Of The Order Of The British Empire; Hawthornden Prize; Man Booker Prize; Man Booker Prize