A short walk from the house where Vivienne Westwood* grew up is the Derbyshire village of Hadfield.
The village lies on the edge of the moors in the High Peak district of Derbyshire. The town of Glossop lies to the south.
Hadfield was the childhood home of celebrated author Hillary Mantel.
(*for Westwood see the previous post ‘High Peak to the World’s End’)
Mantel passed away recently leaving behind a stunning legacy of work including her multi-million selling Wolf Hall trilogy.
Mantel’s autobiography Giving Up The Ghost provides a sharp recollection of her childhood locale.
“…..the area where I grew up is on the fringes of the Peak District, a place of complex geology and inventive forms of human deprivation, of inhospitable uplands and steep-sided valleys. Tiny fields, bordered by drystone walls, lie like a worn blanket on a pauper: sharp angles of limestone protrude like bony spurs through a token covering of green. On high ground, in the deep winters of my early life, snow lasted till April. At the fringes of the Peak, where limestone gives way to sandstone, icy streams tumble over brown boulders. There are miles of moorland, flat, featureless, sodden—trackless, or traversed by ancient, faded bridleways.”
Another local, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, was also cautious of the moors. She recollects:-
“As I grew up I was free to wander in a countryside which was beautiful and intimate until you got to the moors. After that it was wild and a little frightening. ”
Mantel’s most famous work, the Wolf Hall trilogy are largely set in and around the court of King Henry VIII.
The first and most famous novel in the trilogy was named after the family seat of the Seymour family, Wolf Hall in Wiltshire. Jane Seymour, who became Henry VIII’s third wife, lived there with her family.
Henry and his then queen, Anne Boleyn, visited the Seymour family at Wolf Hall in the county of Wiltshire in 1535. Within 6 months of the visit Henry would marry Jane Seymour and Anne Boleyn would be dead, executed for alleged adultery and incest.
The original structure of Wolf Hall is largely gone and the remains were incorporated into the current building.
Westwood was once the subject of media inspired hatred after using an adapted image of Queen Elizabeth II in her fashion designs. She was roundly critised at the time for what were percieved as anti-monarchist sentiments. It is clear however from her later comments that she has great affection and respect for Elizabeth II.
Mantel was also respectful of the monarchy. Nevertheless she thought that the institution was now in its endgame and would not last too much longer. She was a fan of Meghan Markle whom she thought had been especially badly treated by the English media in particular.
Neither Westwood nor Mantel were admirers of the late Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher was apparently disliked by Queen Elizabeth II as well. Westwood imitated Thatcher on the cover of Tatler magazine as an ‘April fool’ in 1989.
Mantel was even more open in her dislike of the politician. ‘I can still feel that boiling detestation’ she once said of Thatcher. Her short story The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher was sparked by a coincidence in her own life when she spotted Thatcher from the window of her London flat as the latter walked in the garden of the grounds of the adjacent private hospital after undergoing an eye operation.
Twenty years later and another iconic cover for Tatler.
Both Westwood and Mantel were made Dames by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince (now King) Charles respectively.
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