Tag Archives: Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel – a re-read

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I decided to read Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall again, I rarely re-read books but in my mind this is a book that I remembered loving, imagine my surprise when I looked back on my 2012 thoughts on it and discovered I wasn’t that enthralled with it. You can see what I thought of Wolf Hall here. I suspect that when I watched the TV series with all the sumptuous costumes, settings and good acting I was enamoured.

Anyway, this time around I did really enjoy it. As it happens I discovered that late at night on TV Wolf Hall was being shown again, so I ended up watching it at the same time I was reading the book and realised that all of the dialogue is exactly as it was in the book.

Wolf Hall begins in 1500 and ends in 1535, but does slip back to the 1520s for a few chapters early on. It was definitely interesting times. I very much doubt that a neglected and abused child in the 20th or 21st century could have risen to the heights that Thomas Cromwell did, which is quite depressing really. Cromwell was definitely a flawed human being (which of us isn’t?!) but especially within his family and personal life, he comes across as being a good guy with really likeable traits.

You can read Jack’s thoughts on the book here.

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.

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!