I am indebted to the work of Eric Ives, David Loades, Alison Weir, G.W. Bernard, Retha M. Warnicke and many other historians of the Boleyns and their downfall.
This book is of course not about Anne Boleyn or about Henry VIII, but about the career of Thomas Cromwell, who is still in need of attention from biographers. Meanwhile, Mr Secretary remains sleek, plump and densely inaccessible, like a choice plum in a Christmas pie; but I hope to continue my efforts to dig him out.
Acknowledgements
I am truly grateful to the open-minded historians who took the time to read Wolf Hall, to comment on it and encourage this project, and to the many readers who have contacted me with family trees and snippets of family legend, with piquant information about lost places and almost forgotten names. Thank you to Sir Bob Worcester for showing me Allington Castle, once owned by the Wyatt family, and to Rupert Thistlethwayte, descendant of William Paulet, for inviting me to Cadhay, his beautiful house in Devon. And thank you to all those people who have issued kind invitations I hope to take up in the course of writing my next novel.
I owe special gratitude to my husband Gerald McEwen, who has to share a house with so many invisible people, and who never fails in his support and practical kindness.
The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: http://us.macmillan.com/content.aspx?publisher=macmillansite&id=25699.
About the Author
HILARY MANTEL is the bestselling author of ten previous novels, including Wolf Hall, which won the 2009 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Among her novels are A Change of Climate, A Place of Greater Safety, Beyond Black, and Eight Months on Ghazzah Street. She has also written a memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. The winner of the 2006 Hawthornden Prize, her reviews and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books. Mantel lives in England with her husband.
Also by Hilary Mantel
Every Day Is Mother’s Day
Vacant Possession
Eight Months on Ghazzah Street
Fludd
A Place of Greater Safety
A Change of Climate
An Experiment in Love
The Giant, O’Brien
Learning to Talk
Beyond Black
Wolf Hall
NON-FICTION
Giving Up the Ghost
Also by
Hilary Mantel
The Bestselling Author of Wolf Hall,
Winner of the Man Booker Prize
For updates, like Hilary Mantel on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/HilaryMantelAuthor
Wolf Hall
MORE FROM BOOKER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR HILARY MANTEL
“Mantel is at her best when turning her penetrating novelistic gaze to history…. Her abilities to channel the life and lexicon of the past are nothing short of astonishing.” —Ross King, Los Angeles Times
Wolf Hall
ISBN 978-0-312-42998-0
E-ISBN 978-1-4299-4328-4
Bring Up the Bodies
ISBN 978-1-250-02417-6
E-ISBN 978-1-4299-4765-7
www.picadorusa.com/bringupthebodies
A Place of Greater Safety
ISBN 978-0-312-42639-2
E-ISBN 978-1-4299-2280-7
www.picadorusa.com/aplaceofgreatersafety
Beyond Black
ISBN 978-0-312-42605-7
E-ISBN 978-1-4299-0063-8
www.picadorusa.com/beyondblack
Every Day Is Mother’s Day
ISBN 978-0-312-66803-7
E-ISBN 978-1-4299-5450-1
www.picadorusa.com/everydayismothersday
Vacant Possession
ISBN 978-0-312-66804-4
E-ISBN 978-1-4299-5457-0
www.picadorusa.com/vacantpossession
“Mantel’s writing is so exact and brilliant that, in itself, it seems an act of survival, even redemption.” —The New Yorker
The Giant, O’Brien
ISBN 978-0-312-42688-0
E-ISBN 978-1-4299-3219-6
www.picadorusa.com/thegiantobrien
An Experiment in Love
ISBN 978-0-312-42687-3
E-ISBN 978-1-4299-0059-1
www.picadorusa.com/anexperimentinlove
Fludd
ISBN 978-0-8050-6273-1
E-ISBN 978-1-4299-0062-1