Wolf Hall author Dame Hilary Mantel dies aged 70

Her work 'enthralled and entertained millions' - ITV News Entertainment Reporter, Rishi Davda, reports on the legacy of Dame Hilary Mantel

Dame Hilary Mantel, the author best known for the multi-award winning Wolf Hall series of novels, has died at the age of 70.

In a short statement her agents said their "thoughts are with her friends and family, especially her husband, Gerald.

"This is a devastating loss and we can only be grateful she left us with such a magnificent body of work."

A statement released by her publisher, HarperCollins, said: "It is with great sadness that AM Heath and HarperCollins announce that bestselling author Dame Hilary Mantel DBE died suddenly yet peacefully yesterday, surrounded by close family and friends, aged 70. 

"Hilary Mantel was one of the greatest English novelists of this century and her beloved works are considered modern classics. She will be greatly missed."

The British writer won the Booker Prize twice, first for her 2009 novel Wolf Hall and again in 2012 for Bring Up The Bodies.

Ms Mantel was living in Budleigh Salterton, Devon for much of her later life, and was born in Glossop in Derbyshire.

Her first novel was published in 1985, but it was the three-part Wolf Hall series, the first of which came out in 2009, that made her a household name. A fictionalised biography series on Thomas Cromwell and his role in the court of Henry VIII, it was later adapted into a BBC series.

More to follow.