[Kidnapped] compelled me from the first words and has not let go to this day. It implanted an image of how a novel should work. I think a lot of my ambitions as a writer, and many of my own persisting themes, originate there: friendship, courage, the need to go out into the world and make your fate. I reread it every couple of years, and get more interested in it, not less. Hilary Mantel Hilary Mantel