Review of Bring Up The Bodies

Hilary Mantel doesn't need a review from me, but a few notes to remember what I liked about this brilliant book. It draws you in from the very first, and though it's years since I read 'Wolf Hall' I was back in there right away, inside Thomas Cromwell's head and seeing the world through his eyes.

What makes it so special for me is that Cromwell is at once clever, and distanced from, and critical of, his master Henry and yet utterly devoted to his business and his objectives. He is at once Trotsky and Beria to Henry's Stalin. He has no illusions about the man's childish capriciousness, and yet he has given his life - and will, we know, ultimately give his life - to his service. Some of it, as he acknowledges, is sort of in self-defence...if he doesn't act against Henry's enemies (like the Boleyns) then they will do for him and his family; but not all of it. Because Cromwell is so intelligent, and so insightful, it comes as a shock to realize every so often that he is also a brutal butcher, wiping out the obstacles to Henry's latest whims and pleasures without either regret or malice. "We're not interested in the whole truth, only the truth we can use," he says.

Can't wait to read the final book, after a decent interval to recover.