Product Description

Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2009 'Lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning,' says Thomas More, 'and when you come back that night he'll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks' tongues, and all the gaolers will owe him money.' England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor. Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages. From one of our finest living writers, Wolf Hall is that very rare thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion and suffering and courage.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 672 pages

About the Author
Hilary Mantel is one of our most important living writers. She is the author of eleven books, including A Place of Greater Safety, Giving Up the Ghost, and, most recently, Beyond Black, which was shortlisted for the 2006 Orange Prize.

Customer Reviews

A magnificent tale
Anyone who paid attention in history classes at school will need little background to the events of Wolf Hall. The key events of the story take place over just less than a ten year period from the 1520s to the 1530s. Mantel has taken what is, supposedly, Britain's best loved history topic, Henry VIII and his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, marriage to Anne Boleyn and the resulting split with Rome and has melded it into a compelling story.

She has obviously had some of her work done for her - the key dramatic events, characters, plots and intrigue are fairly heavily based in fact, but what Mantel has done is to breathe life and substance into the historial figures to make them loveable, hateable, complex characters. At the centre of her book stands Thomas Cromwell, a man from humble origins who rose to unprecedented power in England as Henry's chief minister. Cromwell is beautifully portrayed and his personal relationships, be they loving, tragic or political are fascinating reading. The relationships with Wolsey and More in particular are executed wonderfully (no pun intended in the latter case).

My only grumble with the book were that some events are included, but skated over in short passages and other events are included, but drag a little. This is probably an inevitable part of a historical novel covering such a long period of time; you can't simply leap forward 2 years and avoid the need to understand certain intervening events. However, whilst this slows the pace of the book in places, I enjoyed the book so much that it didn't particularly spoil it for me (indeed, those who prefer a fast paced novel are probably not going to enjoy Wolf Hall).

The book ends shortly after the death of Thomas More, and I can't be only one who wonders (and hopes) whether we might yet see a second, "decline and fall" book. I'd certainly love to read it.

I do hope this is Part One of Two
I am puzzled as to why this book bears the title "Wolf Hall" which is the birth place of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII's third wife. It is a biography of Thomas Cromwell, Henry's chief advisor around the time he divorced his first wife Catherine and married the second, Anne Boleyn. At the very end of the book Cromwell is planning a journey around England for the royal couple, and tradition has it that there, at Wolf Hall in Wiltshire, Jane Seymour first came to the attention of the king, bored as he was with the temperamental Anne. It is hinted that Thomas Cromwell himself had leanings towards the quiet Jane, who he had encountered amongst Anne's women at court.

I feel Hilary Mantel allowed her own feelings for her subject, Thomas Cromwell, to run away with her, as in this biography (or part biography, as surely with such an abrupt end there must be a part two) he can do no wrong, painted as an affectionate, loving, humorous and patient man - as well as cunning, resourceful and clever, which everything in history confirms is true. It is a change to find Sir Thomas More cast more in the role of the villain who took more delight than was seemly in torturing and putting to death those who crossed him. Different days indeed, when no one thought it conceivable that anyone object to a king whose own method of getting rid of opposition - whether from courtier or tiresome wife - was death by a method of his choice.

Hilary Mantel also seems to fixate on her "hero," who certainly comes across as an entirely sympathetic character, to the extent that every word "he" seems to refer to Cromwell. I was entirely confused by this until I realised what was happening, by then I was on Page 50. Reading became less confusing afterwards.

Wolf Hall Part Two, where Cromwell oversees the dispatch of Wife Nr 2 - the beheading of Anne - the immediate succession (literally within days) and sad death of Wife Nr 3 - the said Jane Seymour of Wolf Hall - and precipitates his own downfall with the recommendation of hated Wife Nr 4 - Anne of Cleves - must surely be in the pipeline. I do very much hope so.

Insightful, intuitive - brilliant - if you read one book this year, it should be this one.
"Wolf Hall" is a fictionalised biography of Thomas Cromwell and covers his rise from an unpromising and brutalised childhood, through his involvement in the divorce of Katherine of Aragon and the subsequent marriage of Anne Boleyn by Henry VIII. It finishes shortly after the death of Thomas More.

This is brilliantly written; the author has the ability to effortlessly enfold chunks of history into the narrative. There is no clunky gear change from the homely business of the Cromwell household into an explanation of Pope Clement's position on Henry's marriage to Katherine. Everything is brilliantly entwined.

Each character is exquisitely and finely drawn (even the minor and seemingly insignificant ones). It's well-researched, thorough and absorbing.

This is not a quick read. But I have read every Booker Prize winner for the last fifteen years and this one is, in my opinion, the most eloquently and beautifully written. I have read other books by Hilary Mantel (my favourite being "Beyond Black") but this is on a completely different level and is in contention to be one of my favourite books of all time.

If you read just one book this year, make it this one.