Lucie Bea Dutton on the messages of encouragement the writer gave her, and another author on the blurb quotation she provided for a book
Re your editorial on Hilary Mantel (The Guardian view on Hilary Mantel: a glorious original, 23 September), when in 2020 I started a large textile project inspired by her Cromwell trilogy, it was initially a way to keep myself occupied during lockdown. As the project progressed, and grew ever more ambitious, I started to worry about using someone else’s work as inspiration, and felt I should seek permission. I nervously wrote to Hilary’s agent, explaining what I was doing and hoping she wouldn’t mind.
Four hours later I had an email from Hilary herself, expressing interest and encouragement, and asking me to keep in touch as my stitching developed. Over the last couple of years, we corresponded by email. She was unfailingly encouraging, kind and generous, shared personal stories, and seemed genuinely touched that a textile artist was stitching her work. I was last in contact with her 10 days ago, when I emailed her about the next part of my Cromwell project: working with yellow satin to create a piece inspired by Cromwell’s own “quylte of yelow Turquye Saten”.
