Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

The world of Henry VIII comes alive through "Wolf Hall."  British author, Hilary Mantel seems to invade the mind of King Henry's Secretary and close confidant, Thomas Cromwell, to enlighten readers on the Renaissance times of King Henry's court.

The book follows the life of Cromwell from his teenage years when he fled his home in Putney to avoid further abuse from his father, Walter Cromwell, a blacksmith, to near the end of his life following the execution of Thomas More.  In between Cromwell held a number of posts as a soldier of fortune in France and Italy, a woolen merchant in Amsterdam, the advisor of Cardinal Wolsey, and then the go-to advisor to King Henry.  He was an educated, accomplished and astute man who managed to keep his head while everyone else seemed to be losing theirs.  While history shows Cromwell to be quite a ruthless inquisitor, as was his mentor, Cardinal Wolsey, it is easy to sympathize with him and to see him as simply a man of his time and circumstances.

The format of this extremely thick book is often hard to read because it covers so much of the stream of consciousness thought process of the great Cromwell with smatterings of dialogue to break the lengthy internal monologues.  Still, once I got the flow of it I found it an extremely interesting, enlightening and unique novel.  The author must have one foot in this period of British history to have pulled off a work that gets so deeply into the psyche of important figures and events from the 1500's.

I do wonder about the title.  It comes from the estate of the Seymour family, who reached ascendancy after the events of this book. It would have been better called Austin Friars, the long-time home and work place of Cromwell.  I guess "Wolf Hall" is a sexier, more dangerous-sounding name that befits the events of King Henry's break from the Church in Rome and his stormy marriage to Anne Boleyn.

I highly recommend this book to any lover of Tudor history or British historical fiction.