Q.910

In February 2013, the double Booker Prize winning novelist Hilary Mantel made a speech at an event organised by the London Review of Books. It plunged her into controversy for comments she made about Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge ("Kate Middleton, as she was, appeared to have been designed by a committee and built by craftsmen, with a perfect plastic smile and the spindles of her limbs hand-turned and gloss-varnished").

(In fact, Mantel makes several observations about the rest of the English monarchy as well, but as this Guardian article points out, most people seem not to have read the actual speech. No surprises.)

Back to today's question: the speech starts with Mantel recounting how she was once asked to pick a famous person and suggest a book for them to read. She chooses Middleton and recommends Caroline Weber's Queen of Fashion: What ____ ____ Wore to the Revolution" as being relevant to the Duchess. Who is this book about?

[+ Show Answer]

Marie Antoinette. Here's the whole speech - as you'd expect, it's beautifully written.

This day last year: Q.545