Book Review: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

I don’t often read books praised by critics; and I’m certainly not a follower of authors who win literary prizes. My pedestrian taste tends toward John Le Carré, Wilbur Smith, Robert Ludlum, historical novels, and just about anyone who writes crime fiction set in Britain. On learning that Hilary Mantel had not only won the 2009 Man Booker Prize but in doing so had written a wonderfully readable historical novel of the personalities surrounding King Henry VIII, I was hooked.

Wolf Hall is a novel on the life of Thomas Cromwell who began as the son of a brutal blacksmith from Putney and rose to become Chief Minister to Henry VIII.

Little is known of Cromwell’s early life, but the young Cromwell fled from his sadistic father to France where he joined the French Army. He moved on to Italy where he learnt merchant banking; became expert in the textile industry when in the Netherlands. He also qualified for a law degree and won a seat in parliament in the 1520s.

We rejoin Cromwell in England where he emerges as principal aide to Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII’s go-to-counselor cum consigliore at the time.

Although we know in advance the fate of the main characters, it is a tribute to Mantel’s skill as a novelist and her ‘informed imagination’ of the period to give new depth to their life. The Tudor Court is transformed from a gathering of historical figures into an eclectic assembly of individuals with whom we share hopes, dreams, setbacks, affairs and frustrations. Henry VIII is vulnerable, worried by his lack of a male heir and frustrated by Cardinal Wolsey’s inability to convince the Pope to grant an annulment. Queen Katherine is distraught and hurt by Henry’s attitude and later treatment of her and Hilary Mantel makes it easy for us to feel for her plight. Anne Boleyn is a greedy, ambitious cock-teaser anxious to replace Katherine as Queen while refusing Henry’s more carnal desires until she’s wed. Sir Thomas More is pious, cruel, an enthusiastic torturer of heretics, and shallow; a man who pays the ultimate price for his belief.

While Cromwell is ruthless in business, Mantel shows him as a devoted husband and father during a time when sons, and daughters especially, were married off to form an alliance, add to the family fortune or gain influence at court. His wife, Liz, and young daughters Annie and Grace, die around 1527 of ‘sweating sickness’. There’s no doubt that Thomas Cromwell grieved for them.

Wolsey, having failed to convince Pope Clement to grant Henry an annulment, is charged in 1529 with praemunire and stripped of most of his titles and property. Wolsey and Cromwell have formed a successful working relationship; respect if not exactly like each other, and Cromwell continues to loyally defend and befriend the Cardinal to the end. It is this loyalty that draws Henry VIII’s attention to Cromwell.

Cromwell was prominent among those who suggested to Henry VIII that the king make himself head of the English Church, and saw the Act of Supremacy of 1534 through Parliament. This overcame any role the Church in Rome may have had affecting the Church in England and Henry could therefore grant himself a divorce from Katherine to marry Anne Boleyn. Cromwell is now almost at the pinnacle of his power and influence. Cromwell was a Renaissance man before the term was coined.

Henry VIII’s London is damp, foggy grubby and violent; the Thames turbulent. Mantel’s evocation is such that we endure winter storms and snow, see filth in the streets, share the misery of the poor, are shocked by the smugness and greed of both the nobility and the clergy and are chilled by winds howling through the Tower of London.

‘Wolf Hall’ is a dark tale. The jealousy, duplicity, betrayal, revenge and conspiracy inflicted on, and by, the protagonists is sufficient to arouse and maintain our interest and to keep the pages turning. So much so that, on finishing the book, I immediately began re-reading it.

I knew Wolf Hall would end in death. It does; but not the death I expected. This is disappointing because after 632 pages we don’t have closure. On a more positive note, Hilary Mantel is writing a second volume of Thomas Cromwell’s life and I, like millions of others, eagerly await it. I just hope the wait won’t be too long.