Hilary Mantel: ‘Dickens seems such awful stuff – coarse, sentimental, conceited’

The book I am currently reading
Birds of America, the absorbing 1971 novel by Mary McCarthy, soon to be reissued by Penguin.

The book that changed my life
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers. Not that I’ve read it. I just like to mutter the title before I write a paragraph.

The book I wish I’d written
The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge. Witty, chilling, every word in place.

The book that had the greatest influence on my writing
Not a book, a play: Julius Caesar. Sets the agenda.

The book I think is most under/overrated
Why is Bernard MacLaverty not celebrated as one of the wonders of the world? His new novel Midwinter Break will be my Christmas present to myself.

The last book that made me cry/laugh
Cry? Yeats is always reliable, even if you’ve just got something in your eye. For purposes of cruel laughter I recently revisited How to Be a Public Author by the literary critic and eminence grise Francis Plug.

The book I couldn’t finish
I started Peveril of the Peak when I was 12. Death will arrive before I finish it. Maybe no one has ever finished it. Except Sir Walter Scott, unfortunately.

The book I’m most ashamed not to have read
Not shame, more frustration: there are whole swathes of Charles Dickens that I barely attempt. It just seems such awful stuff – coarse, sentimental, conceited.

The book I most often give as a gift
To cheer people up: The Women in Black by Madeleine St John. To arouse a sense of wonder: Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith Thomas.

The book I’d most like to be remembered for
I hope it will be the one I’m writing now.