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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 a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.
From one of our finest living writers, WOLF HALL that very rare thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion and suffering and courage.
′Hilary Mantel enchants with the energy and force of her prose′ THE AGE
′It′s marvellous′ CANBERRA TIMES
′Mantel′s portrait of Cromwell triumphs ... the success of Wolf Hall lies in its intense characterisations, the relishable prose and the acute detail′ Peter Rose, THE AUSTRALIAN
′Mantel′s best novel yet′ THE ECONOMIST
′what Mantel does with language, with sheer imaginative force, on the pages of WOLF HALL is a certain kind of sorcery ... the kind of novel that grips you from its very first line and doesn′t let go′ THE CANBERRA TIMES
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