Hilary Mantel: Friend and broadcaster Jan Rogers pays tribute
BBCA close friend of Dame Hilary Mantel has paid tribute to the "attentive, generous and very funny" Wolf Hall author, following her death, aged 70.
Jan Rogers, a former BBC Radio Derby producer, has lamented the loss of her "best friend", who she met in 1996.
The 71-year-old, from Nottingham, described Dame Hilary as a "forensic thinker" with a passion for "fairness" and "all things intellectual".
She became the first woman to win the Booker Award twice.
Dame Hilary, who was born in Derbyshire, won the prestigious honour for 2009's Wolf Hall, the first in the Cromwell series, and for the sequel, Bring Up the Bodies in 2012.
Ms Rogers told BBC Radio Derby: "Like a lot of people who knew her, it's not sunk in that she's not going to be there, but I'm so pleased that everyone is talking about her.
"Hilary was my closest friend for half of my adult life. I think she was probably one of the most attentive people you could meet.
"She was very aware of what the other person was going through, she never forgot to ask what was going on, she was extremely kind, generous and very funny.
"I think her interests and perceptions were so wide and varied. No two books were alike, she was very interested in people's minds.
"She didn't want to write about relationships and emotions, she wanted to write about ideas, thoughts and how people got things done.
"She was tremendously accurate whenever she did write anything that was based on truth. She would make sure that if it could be known it would be known."
Dame Hilary died "suddenly yet peacefully" on Thursday, surrounded by family and friends, according to her publisher, HarperCollins.
Ms Rogers said they met when Dame Hilary visited Beeston Library for a publicity event.
The producer had been keen to attend after reading her novel, A Place of Greater Safety.
"I watched peacefully at the back of the talk and the librarian who booked her said to me: 'I never know what to say to authors', so she asked me to go to dinner with them," she said.
"We went to an Italian restaurant where I quoted huge tracts of her work back to her. It's a wonder she didn't run a mile."
Wolf Hall was a fictional account of Thomas Cromwell's rise to power in the court of Henry VIII.
Among those who have also paid tribute to Dame Hilary are fellow authors JK Rowling and Caitlin Moran.
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