W.F. Howes, an RBmedia international publishing brand, has drafted a prestigious cast of screen and stage actors and notable literary figures to lend their voices to the audio edition of Hilary Mantel’s A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing.
 
The celebrated writer’s eagerly anticipated, posthumous journalistic collection, publishing on 19 October, will be voiced by Lydia Leonard (Bring Up the Bodies, Ten Percent, and The Crown), Ben Miles (The Capture, Collateral, and The Crown), and Aurora Dawson-Hunte (The Stranger and October Faction)—all of whom have featured in stage adaptations of Mantel’s works.
 
Leonard, Miles, and Dawson-Hunte will be joined by actor Jane Wymark (Midsomer Murders and Poldark), who performed Mantel’s bestselling memoir Giving Up the Ghost, authors Sarah Waters and Anne Enright, Hilary Mantel’s literary agent Bill Hamilton, and Nicholas Pearson, her editor and publisher of nearly 20 years.
 
A Memoir of My Former Self is a celebration of Mantel’s writing beyond her prolific career as one of the nation’s most treasured novelists. It features many of her newspaper and journal contributions, revealing stories from her own life and her illuminating musings on the world as she found it. It also contains her beautiful and moving Reith Lectures and a selection of her film reviews—including When Harry Met Sally and Robocop—taken from her time as a Spectator Magazine film critic.
 
Her writings poignantly cover a broad range of topics, from nationalism, her own sense of belonging and the themes that feed into her novels, to more personal subjects like her father and the man who replaced him, her heart-breaking health struggles as a young woman, and the stifling years she spent living in Saudi Arabia.
 
Laura Smith, Acquisitions Manager at W.F. Howes, who acquired the UK and Commonwealth unabridged audio rights from Florence Rees at A.M. Health. Smith, commented, “A year since Hilary sadly passed away, we are all still mourning the loss of one of this generation’s most iconic novelists. At W.F. Howes, we enjoyed a close relationship with her over the years, publishing her entire 14-title audiobook catalogue, which includes some of our all-time bestsellers. It was always apparent that Hilary’s passion for writing transcended far beyond her bestselling novels, so A Memoir of My Former Self is a perfect tribute to her life and a real celebration of her unique talent for writing in all kinds of diverse forms and styles. Given her huge popularity, status, and legacy in the literary world, I’m not surpised by how many big names wanted to get behind this project and contribute to the audiobook.”