Why did I love this book?
This is the first of three books which tell the story of Henry VIII’s right-hand man and fixer, Thomas Cromwell. Written in the present tense, it puts the reader right in the centre of Cromwell’s complex, seductive and dangerous world. We see him rise from lowly origins to be one of the most powerful men in England, but we understand that the axe could fall at any time. This is the book that showed me how powerful historical fiction could be.
20 authors picked Wolf Hall as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Winner of the Man Booker Prize Shortlisted for the the Orange Prize Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award
`Dizzyingly, dazzlingly good' Daily Mail
'Our most brilliant English writer' Guardian
England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor.
Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with…