Award-winning writer Hilary Mantel dead at 70, literary agent and publisher announce

Hilary Mantel, the British writer and winner of two Booker awards for her best-selling trilogy about the life of Thomas Cromwell, has died at the age of 70, according to her literary agent A.M. Health and publisher Harper Collins. Mantel died " suddenly yet peacefully yesterday, surrounded by close family and friends," they said in a statement. Mantel won the Booker Prize for "Wolf Hall" and its sequel "Bring up the Bodies," which were both filmed for TV and became a hit West End show.