Tag Archives: Hilary Mantel

Guardian Book Club: Hilary Mantel

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I didn’t get a chance to look at Saturday’s Guardian until this morning (Monday) because I was busy reading Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up The Bodies. If like me you’ve been reading Mantel’s books then you’ll probably be interested in reading this article. In it she tells how she came to write the novels which would win the Booker – twice.

In it she also explains how she decided to call Cromwell ‘he’ throughout Wolf Hall and says that ‘Most readers caught on quickly. Those who didn’t complained.’

All authors see their books as their babies and can be a wee bit silly about any negative aspects of them. There were definitely a few clunky passages in Wolf Hall which were full of he said – the he not always being Cromwell of course. I didn’t complain, but did think that a bit of editing was needed to tidy some passages up.

Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel

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I got an e-mail on Thursday from the library asking me to come and pick up this book, I requested it from them months ago so there was obviously a long queue of people in front of me. Anyway, I picked it up on Thursday night and as there’s a note on the inside of the book asking people to read it as quickly as possible as it’s in demand I did just that and finished it this afternoon.

Thankfully at 410 pages this one isn’t as huge as Wolf Hall which I found to be an unwieldy beast to read even although I enjoyed the contents.

I think I actually liked this book even more than Wolf Hall, possibly because I did read it over such a short period of time and I didn’t have any problems with the writing, either I’ve got used to her style or she has improved it because Wolf Hall was a wee bit confusing at times with so many he saids and it not always being obvious who the he was.

I’m sure everyone knows what Bring Up the Bodies is about. It’s the continuation of Thomas Cromwell’s career at Henry VIII’s court. Cromwell hasn’t allowed the disadvantages of being the son of a blacksmith to hold him back, in fact the survival skills he learned as a youngster have been a help to him in his post of Henry’s Chief Minister. As a commoner he’s looked down on by the aristocrats at court but they’re also afraid of his power. Cromwell has plenty of enemies, it’s a dangerous combination.

Cromwell had done everything he could to please Henry by making it possible for Anne to become his wife and Queen but Henry is less than pleased with Anne and is keen to get on to the next wife, Jane Seymour. It’s Cromwell’s job to find a way out for the king. This book ends in 1536 with Anne Boleyn getting the chop – or should I say the swish!

Hilary Mantel is apparently writing the next book in this series. I’m really looking forward to it. There are only four more years to go for Thomas Cromwell so it shouldn’t be a massive tome.

Bring Up The Bodies won the 2012 Man Booker Prize.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

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I bought a hardback copy of this book for £2 from a charity shop shortly after it had been published and it has taken me until now to get around to reading it. I was put off reading it mainly because it looked like such a thick tome whenever I passed it, which was very often as it was situated on that bookcase which is half-way up the stairs, on the mezzanine level, well that’s what an estate agent would call it.

Actually it turned out to be not as long as I had thought, just 650 pages but I have to report that although I enjoyed Wolf Hall, I wasn’t as enamoured of it as so many other readers seem to have been. I think maybe I’ve just had enough of the Tudors at the moment, that era does seem to be the one everyone concentrates on. Having said that, I will read the sequel whenever I can get hold of it.

My favourite history book concerning that time is The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser and if you’re keen on the Tudors then you’ll really enjoy that one. Don’t be put off by the fact that it’s a history book rather than fiction, it’s very readable.

Speaking of huge tomes, I’ve decided to start reading the book which I bought at the Chatsworth shop last summer when we visited that stately home. It’s The Mitfords – Letters Between Six Sisters and I plan to read 30 or 40 pages each day, otherwise I’ll never get around to it at all. It’s 804 pages long and very heavy and unwieldy, not easy bedtime reading.

But which book am I going to choose to read on my Kindle now – decisions, decisions!