Good Scribes Only #155 Wolf Hall - Hillary Mantel (Historical Fiction)
About the Book:
Published in 2009, Wolf Hall reimagines the rise of Thomas Cromwell, one of the most enigmatic and powerful figures in Tudor England. Set during the reign of Henry VIII, the novel traces Cromwell’s ascent from the son of a blacksmith to the king’s chief minister, moving through a court defined by ambition, betrayal, and shifting loyalties.
Hillary Mantel’s bold narrative voice places readers inside Cromwell’s mind, offering an intimate, morally complex portrait of power in motion. Rather than treating history as spectacle, Wolf Hall examines how decisions are made, alliances are forged, and survival depends on perception as much as principle. The novel won the Man Booker Prize and reshaped historical fiction with its psychological depth, stylistic precision, and radical re-centering of a long-maligned figure.
About the Author:
Hilary Mantel (1952–2022) was an English novelist and critic widely regarded as one of the greatest historical novelists of her generation. Her writing is known for its intelligence, rigor, and emotional restraint, often exploring power, gender, and the forces that shape identity.
Mantel achieved international acclaim with the Thomas Cromwell trilogy—Wolf Hall (2009), Bring Up the Bodies (2012), and The Mirror & the Light (2020). She was the first woman to win the Man Booker Prize twice, and later received a Damehood for services to literature. Mantel’s work transformed the historical novel, demonstrating how the past can be rendered with both immediacy and unsettling relevance.