The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

I read Hilary Mantel saying somewhere that Thomas Cromwell needed somebody to do some serious academic research about him. Well, I reckon she’s done it. This last in the trilogy, something like 900 pages of it, is the grand finale of the set. I think there was actually less stuff happening during this last period of his life, and a lot of it was murky politicking about international alliances. And then of course there was the continuing thorn in Henry’s side of Reginald Pole, the English Cardinal who broke with Henry and fled to Rome where he sucked up to the pope and eventually was rewarded under Mary’s reign as the last Catholic archbishop of Canterbury. Thomas’s inability to take decisive action against this man played a huge part in his downfall. And that combined with what Mantel casts as the resentment of the privileged against someone they perceived to be a complete upstart, was enough. The bulk of this beautifully written book is the fictional part of historical fiction: the thoughts, musings, fears, machinations, plotting, hopes and dreams that made up the imagined internal life of Thomas Cromwell. I have to admit at times, lovely as the writing is, my attention waned a little. There was not quite enough happening to sustain me through 900 pages – but it was not to be missed, under any circumstances!