THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT ?

The worried look on this troubled face is bordering on despair. Shame really, as this is Dame Hillary Mantel - best selling author and twice Booker Prize winner and you might imagine that after all the fame and fortune she has garnered over the years she might be inclined to live peacefully and enjoy the fruits of her labours.

But no.   In a recent interview with (I think) an Italian newspaper she declared that she was pretty fed up with the UK and had a pop at Boris Johnson, the monarchy as an institution and said she felt `ashamed` at many aspects of life in post-Brexit UK.

"I might breathe easier in a republic and may be able to arrange it.  I hope to loop back to my family story and become an Irish citizen,"  She added, "Our projected move has been held back by Covid but as much as I love where I live now in the West Country, by the sea, I feel the need to be packing my bags and to become a European again."  She said that she had always been conscious of belonging to an Irish family even though both her parents were English.

All of which seems a great pity.   Given that through her work she has given so much to the cultural and intellectual wellbeing of the UK, her mere presence in what was once this green and pleasant land will surely be missed.   If she has seen the light, I hope she will not look back in the mirror with any regret.