The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher

Fourth Estate are preparing a new collection of contemporary stories from two-time Man Booker winner Hilary Mantel. These ten stories, some of which have been published in various periodical sources, are collected here for the first time, but the star of the show is the provocative title story, which will have its first outing in print. Mantel's shrewd observations about modern life and society are equal to her historical ones - her sharp wit and humour and her daring, but also compassionate, vision of the world are apparent in both. These stories are united by their exploration of the turning points in contemporary lives, be they life-affirming or life-destroying.

Mantel's short fiction has featured in the London Review of Books, Guardian, and various anthologies. Her earlier collection Learning to Talk is praised as both 'challenging and brilliant' (TLS) and 'mercilessly funny' (Daily Telegraph), but perhaps Penelope Lively captures her best in the Sunday Telegraph with her comment: 'It is in sparkling writing such as this that the truth is told…'