Author Hilary Mantel defends short story on 'the assassination of Margaret Thatcher'

Hilary Mantel has defended her story about Margaret Thatcher. Credit: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire/PA Archive/Press Association Images

Hilary Mantel has defended her short story which imagines the assassination of Margaret Thatcher in 1983 after its publication prompted outcry over the weekend.

When asked about the backlash on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week programme today Mantel said: “

Lord Bell, a former adviser to Thatcher had said Mantel should be investigated by police following her remarks.

“Mantel needs to see a therapist,” he told the Sunday Times.

Lord Bell was not the only one to blast Mantel for the story, with her being writing being called "sick and deranged."

Last year Mantel was widely lambasted after she attacked the Duchess of Cambridge for being, what she described, as a "shop-window mannequin" with no personality, whose only purpose is to breed.