Hilary Mantel’s sequel to the epic Wolf Hall transports the reader back in time once again to Henry VIII’s court.
Although we are all familiar with the story, this version reveals Thomas Cromwell’s perspective and unfolds with him at the centre and instrumental in Anne Boleyn’s catastrophic fate.
Mantel mixes history with her fictional take on Cromwell’s involvement and her attention to detail and description is beautifully evocative - you can see, smell and taste the surroundings:
“We think that time cannot touch the dead, but it touches their monuments, leaving them snub-nosed and stub-fingered from the accidents and attrition of time.”
Alongside the methodical man with calculated ambition we are already familiar with in Wolf Hall, we also glimpse Cromwell’s sensitivities and introspections on the loss of his wife and a number of his children, feeling time slip away from him as he gets older. This balance is what really made the novel for me. He is a manipulator hungry for success, but he carries himself with the charms, wit and grace of a gentleman far above his humble roots and equally aware of the feelings and ambitions of those surrounding him. The chosen few he chooses to protect are as far from harm as anyone can provide in such stormy political times.
Mantel has one more instalment to conclude Cromwell’s life at court and I can’t wait to see what further layers she can add to such an intriguing character, who doesn’t yet have a dedicated historical biography of his own. Having recently attended a talk by Alison Weir (See All Things Bookish page for more details), one of the country’s leading female historians, I asked her if this might be a possible future project for her, or if there was insufficient material to work with. She praised Mantel’s novel but explained that although there is much documented to work with he wasn't actually such an interesting and ’sexy’ character in real life. So any biography that is written would be an academic one charting his work, interspersed with such critical events of the time such as Anne Boleyn’s execution.
If this book sparks an interest in this period, and the downfall of Anne Boleyn, then I can highly recommend Alison Weir’s book “The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn” which delivers all the historical facts and details in a fantastic read.
