Mantel...left behind a literary legacy that also includes a wide range of her right-handed writing. A Memoir of My Former Self gathers together the best of it. Spanning four decades, and comprising work that originally appeared in various outlets, this bravura collection of articles, essays, reviews and talks showcases the inquiring mind, fierce intelligence and shrewd way with words of a dexterous — and indeed, ambidextrous — prose stylist.

A continuous delight.

There are essays on politics, America, cricket and Biggles, a superb one on procrastination and several I could have coped without.

We must be grateful that she has left us this collection of pieces, thoughtfully compiled by Pearson into five thematic sections corresponding to different aspects of Mantel’s writing life, and illustrated with personal photographs.

The grand-sounding title and subtitle of this book, published a year after Hilary Mantel’s death, make it out to be a sort of autobiography. In fact it’s a bran tub, an odds-and-sods collection of Mantel’s journalism.

Some themes recur. She turns a cold eye on religion, but is always open to the uncanny, to the supernatural, to ghosts.

Warm, human, unfailingly engaging, this lovely collection should appeal widely. As usual, she writes like a dream..

Dazzling.

Shrewd, humane, and deeply engaging pieces..