The School of English

by Hilary Mantel

A new story from Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall and The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher and twice winner of the Man Booker Prize.

This story is also available in the paperback and eBook edition of The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher.

‘Lastly,’ Mr Maddox said, ‘and to conclude our tour, we come to a very special part of the house.’ He paused, to impress on her that she was going to have a treat. ‘Perhaps, Miss Marcella, it may be that in your last situation, the house did not have a panic room?’

‘The School of English’ invites us behind the stucco façade of a Notting Hill mansion where fear and cruelty grip a household.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Ebooks, British Literature

35 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 21, 2015

About the author

Hilary Mantel was the bestselling author of many novels including Wolf Hall, which won the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Bring Up the Bodies, Book Two of the Wolf Hall Trilogy, was also awarded the Man Booker Prize and the Costa Book Award. She also wrote A Change of Climate, A Place of Greater Safety, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, An Experiment in Love, The Giant, O'Brien, Fludd, Beyond Black, Every Day Is Mother's Day, Vacant Possession, and a memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. Mantel was the winner of the Hawthornden Prize, and her reviews and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books.

Reviews

[Fatima Sheriff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written but I'm deeply uncomfortable about such a graphic and devastating story of immigrants from a woman who isn't one, especially when she assumes a voice to write it.

[Joyce Barrass · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bleak, brutally observed, brilliantly written. Some mesmerising phrases will stick in my imagination, like: "The panicked thump, thump of music brutally dragged from its mother, whose name is melody; music wailing and thrashing like an orphan left in a field."

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an engaging short story, especially the questions it raises relating to consent, race, and class. I only wish it had of been longer.

[Mattie]

This was uncomfortable to read! To a degree this may speak to its effectiveness, but I did find myself questioning whether Mantel was the right person to tell this story—the two characters in the framing device being people of colour with English as an additional language, and their imperfect use of English functioning to other them. While the narrative voice is clearly sympathetic to the protagonist and satirical towards upper class white English people, there's nevertheless something potentially patronising about this approach: at times it seems as if the characters, particularly the Black character, are the butt of the joke; the non-specificness of their nationalities could be argued to make the story more universal, but it could also be read as homogenising distinct cultures into a general category of "brown and oppressed". That's even aside from the very upsetting (though, again, effective) treatment of the sexual assault. I almost stopped reading before the end (though there is at least some warning given before the descriptive part begins).

What I've read of Mantel so far I've generally very much enjoyed; there's no doubt she's an incredibly talented author. Having said that, I stopped reading A Change of Climate partway through, not because I wasn't enjoying it but because I sensed it was about to enter disturbing territory and I wasn't in the right frame of mind for that for personal reasons. From what I do know of the story, though, it doesn't exactly paint Black South Africans in the best possible light. To be clear, it would be equally patronising to demand that Black characters only be depicted as flawless or even sympathetic, but it does again raise the question of whether a white English person is the right person to tell certain stories. I don't have answers, I only have questions! And it's stimulating to read something which raises questions I don't have answers to. But also—as I said—uncomfortable.

[Ruthi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant prose and great story. Have never read this writer before as most of her works seem to be really long. I galloped through this and will now take a look at some others. The story is told through the eyes of a domestic help in the home of some super rich Londoners. It is gut wrenching and tragic. Not going to give any spoilers but plenty of social commentary between the lines.

[Ranjana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.5*]

Found this on my e-book today, not sure how it got there. It was confusing and sad but I think it would have benefited from being longer.

[Amy Savvides · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tragic short story. Well written.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first Hilary Mantel and while I picked this up from the library thinking it was a full novel, I loved this short story. Can’t wait to read more by her.

[Millsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic story that looks at the hard life and difficult truths of an immigrants life.
This would be a good read for older teens as well as adults.

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of an immigrant maid in an affluent household and the teenager she's expected to deal with. An odd superiority held by one servant's English skills over another's.

Suffolk library

[barbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Argggg, this is fantastic and yet infuriating and awful.

[Erica-Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most witty, poignant and horrifying contemporary short fictions I've read in years. Absolutely scathing commentary on immigration labor and in particular the treatment of women trapped in dire circumstances set and controlled by the wealthy. Released as a stand-alone piece in the LRB.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written but utterly depressing novella dealing with the abuse of an immigrant domestic worker.

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5