Hilary Mantel attacks critics for 'bout of froth and bile' over BBC plans to broadcast her Margaret Thatcher assassination story

Mantel's imagined killing of the former Tory PM will air on Radio 4 in January

Hilary Mantel’s short story fantasises about a conspiracy to assassinate former prime minister Margaret Thatcher (David Sandison, Getty Images)

Novelist Hilary Mantel has hit back at critics of the BBC’s decision to broadcast her Margaret Thatcher assassination story in Radio 4’s prestigious Book at Bedtime slot.

The Man Booker prize winner described the public outcry as “nonsense” and accused the Mail on Sunday of sparking “a skirmish in a war with the BBC”.

The newspaper revealed the BBC’s plans and branded Mantel’s work “an insignificant catchpenny squib” that is only being broadcast because of the company’s “massive bias to the left”.

“A couple of days back I spoke in praise and support of the TV adaptation of Wolf Hall, which the BBC will show next year,” Mantel told the Guardian. “Possibly this has triggered the bout of froth and bile.

“I do wonder about the journalists involved. The paper doesn’t write itself. Sooner or later, surely, they must start to feel ashamed of their paper’s attempt to bully and censor?”

The cover of The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel (Henry Holt & Company)

Mantel’s book, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, attracted fierce criticism from Thatcher’s supporters when it was published by the Guardian in September.

The plot follows the imagined murder of the late former Conservative prime minster by an IRA sniper in London, four years after she entered office in 1979 and a couple of months before the real Brighton bombing almost killed her.

The Mail on Sunday piece featured damning comments from Thatcher’s former advisor and friend Lord Bell and her former cabinet minister Lord Tebbit about Mantel, who has admitted to “detesting” Thatcher.

“It is a sick book from a sick mind and it’s being promoted by a sick broadcasting corporation,” said Lord Tebbit, with Lord Bell adding that the BBC will “inevitably be accused of political bias”.

Conor Burns, Tory MP and another friend of Thatcher, described Mantel’s work as a “twisted little story from her disordered mind”.

“Leaving aside the distastefulness, it certainly seems to me to be an unfortunate choice for people who are on the verge of a restful night’s sleep,” he said.

The BBC is set to broadcast Mantel’s story on 9 January. It will be read by actress Dame Harriet Walter over 13 minutes.

A BBC spokesperson defended the decision to air the novel because it is of "significant public interest".

“Book At Bedtime offers the best of modern and classic literature and, in doing so, presents a wide range of perspectives from around the world,” he said.

“The work of Hilary Mantel - a double Booker Prize-winning author - is of significant interest to the public and we will not shy away from the controversial subject matter that features in one of the four stories read across the week.”