Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

I’ve got the third of this series sitting waiting to be read but decided that I’d need to refresh my memory by going back to the first two books in the trilogy. And what a gift that’s been. I absolutely relished rereading first Wolf Hall and then Bring Up the Bodies, back to back. I’m often a bit icky about historical fiction, especially when the writers get waylaid by soft porn romantic encounters that never happened. There’s none of that with Ms Mantel thank god. Her research is thorough and fantastic and she takes the time to explain information she might have left out because it had no bearing on the story. So as I read it, I know the thoughts and conversations she attributes to her characters are fiction, but I also feel confident about a lot of the facts. She says at one point in her notes that Thomas Cromwell really deserves great historical investigation. I am betting that largely because of the attention her books about him have gained, that this is probably already underway! He was a fascinating character, son of a boozy blacksmith – well, the boozy bit may be fiction, but will we ever know? Ah the joy of historical fiction begins to emerge! There is no doubt though that he trained with Cardinal Wolsey, and rose to serve Henry VIII. He facilitated Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn, supported the break from the Roman church and oversaw the dissolution of the monasteries. And then he oversaw the fall of Anne Boleyn and the rise of Jane Seymour. And there are indeed records of his friends and supporters, and indeed his enemies, all of which make an appearance here. The joy of this book is the way Mantel interweaves the facts with the imagined relationships and responses of other people, all imagined but the product of rigorous research. In one throwaway line a character mentions that her womb might have gone wandering – a one liner, but absolutely accurate. In those times, it was widely believed that a woman’s uterus would indeed wander off around various parts of her body! Mantel’s writing is so engaging, so fluid, and indeed erudite. I am sorely tempted to order in all her other novels just for the joy of her magnificent story telling and compelling characterization. It’s no wonder she’s a prize winner.