The second part in Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall Trilogy follows Thomas Cromwell as he finds himself at the heart of Henry’s court. And as Cromwell manoeuvres himself ever-closer to Henry, memories surface and his own plans – long in the making – come to a thrilling and terrifying fruition, for vengeance is a dish best served cold.
Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2012
Winner of Costa Book of the Year 2012
Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2013
‘The finest piece of historical fiction I have ever read… A staggering achievement.’ - The Sunday Telegraph
The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out of every ditch, a path, if you can only see it.
After winning the Man Booker Prize in 2009 for Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel made history in 2012, seizing a historic second win for Bring Up the Bodies, making her the first British author and the first woman to be awarded two Man Booker Prizes.
Continuing where Wolf Hall left off, Bring Up the Bodies is the electrifying second chapter in Mantel’s fictional life of Thomas Cromwell: the Wolf Hall Trilogy.
It is summer, 1535. Thomas Cromwell has risen far from his beginnings as the son of a Putney Blacksmith, to become Chief Minister to the capricious king, Henry VIII. Having secured the king’s release from his first marriage, Cromwell’s fortunes have risen with the ascendancy of Anne Boleyn but as Anne’s fortunes fade, he is forced to steer a dangerous path to protect both the nation and his own position as he serves the king’s desire for a new queen: Jane Seymour.
And, as Cromwell manoeuvres himself ever-closer to Henry, memories surface and his own plans – long in the making - come to a thrilling and terrifying fruition, for vengeance is a dish best served cold.
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780007315109
Number of pages: 528
Weight: 460 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 40 mm
‘This is a bloody story about the death of Anne Boleyn, but Hilary Mantel is a writer who thinks through the blood. She uses her power of prose to create moral ambiguity and the real uncertainty of political life … She has recast the most essential period of our modern English history; we have the greatest modern English prose writer reviving possibly one of the best known pieces of English history’ Sir Peter Stothard, Chair of the judges for the Man Booker Prize 2012 ‘Simply exceptional … I envy anyone who hasn’t yet read it’ Sandra Parsons, Daily Mail ‘In another league. This ongoing story of Henry VIII’s right-hand man is the finest piece of historical fiction I have ever read. A staggering achievement’ Sarah Crompton, Sunday Telegraph ‘Succeeds brilliantly in every particle … it’s an imaginative achievement to exhaust superlatives’ Spectator ‘Wolf Hall was a tour de force, but its sequel is leaner, more brilliant, more shocking than its predecessor’ Erica Wagner, The Times ‘Picks up the body parts where Wolf Hall left off … literary invention does not fail her: she's as deft and verbally adroit as ever’ Margaret Atwood, Guardian ‘Mantel in the voice of Cromwell is inspired. When she is in full flow as a novelist, creating scenes and inventing dialogue, she is more convincing than rendering a recorded scene from history’ Philippa Gregory, Sunday Express ‘Don’t think you can start this book whenever you feel like it – plan ahead, as, once started, it’s impossible to escape its grip, and until it’s finished, you won’t get any sleep’ Country Life
In some ways, this book is even better than Wolf Hall. Faster moving, it starts where Wolf Hall finished and is almost exclusively about Henry VIIIs failing relationship with Anne Boleyn and his desire to produce a... More
Found the writing style to be a bit odd and at times it was difficult to be sure who was speaking. A bit boring for the first half but picks up in the second and is worth the read if you can adjust to the style.
A great book, but a slower pace to Wolf Hall, I feel.
A very good book, weaving in and out of the intrigue and plots! Very good but strangely to me, Cromwell felt rather more peripheral or witness to the events he...
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