Wolf Hall made Hilary Mantel famous. It took one of the best-known episodes in English history, Henry VIII’s repudiation of his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, for the sake of Anne Boleyn, and his subsequent breach with the Roman Catholic church, and made it entirely new. Mantel told the story through the eyes and mind of a man previously seen as one of the villains of history, Henry’s leading courtier, Thomas Cromwell. Everything described is witnessed by him; every bit of dialogue is heard by him.
Mantel injected a new kind of intensity into historical fiction. Wolf Hall won the Booker prize (I was one of the judges that year) and was followed in 2012 by a sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, which also won the Booker. The Thomas Cromwell trilogy was completed in 2020 by The Mirror and the Light, which brought its protagonist to his execution. His last words, when asked by the executioner if he wishes his face to be covered, are characteristic of the Cromwell readers had come to know well.
