Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Leo McKern as Thomas Cromwell

Wolf Hall (2009) is a Man Booker Prize-winning novel by English author Hilary Mantel. Set in the 1520s and 1530s, the novel is about the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the Tudor court of King Henry VIII. Born to a lower-class family of no position or name, Cromwell first became the right-hand of Cardinal Wolsey, and then, after Wolsey's fall from grace, the chief minister to Henry VIII. In that role, he oversaw the break with Rome, the dissolution of the monasteries, and Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn. He was widely hated in his lifetime, and historical and literary accounts in the subsequent centuries have not been kind to Cromwell; in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, for example, he is portrayed as the calculating, unprincipled opposite of Thomas More's honour and rectitude.

This book was a winner according to the BBCs exacting, but at the same time erratic, criteria. “I loved the the book” declared Leanne, only to be topped by Raj, who “loved it to bits” no less! Kate feels that the book humanises history, supported by Andrew who felt it was like sitting behind the protagonist’s eyes, dense and beautifully written.

Certainly the setting of the book, at this most important crossroads in human history, provides a punchy context, and Andrew feels that the “tide of modernity is rising throughout”.

True to form Dennis gave it gave it a slap, saying that the research and subject matter were better than the writing, from a literary point of view.

Scores were:

Mary 6
Kate 7.5
Leanne 9
Raj 8
Kevin 7.5
Dennis 7
Andrew 9

Total 8

Sadly the was Mary’s last BBC, for the moment at least. Look out Phoenix Arizona, or look out Mary perhaps! We look forward to a very big, stiff hairdo on her return. Hopefully Kate and Nats' moves won’t deprive us of their company too much!

Worth noting is the play and film “A Man for All Seasons”. The play was written by Robert Bolt, originally for BBC Radio, later performed on stage, and then made into a film.

See some of it on YouTube:

Actually it had a magnificent cast including:

Paul Scofield — Sir Thomas More
Wendy Hiller — Alice More
Leo McKern — Thomas Cromwell
Robert Shaw — Henry VIII
Orson Welles — Cardinal Wolsey
Susannah York — Margaret More
Nigel Davenport — The Duke of Norfolk
John Hurt — Richard Rich
Corin Redgrave — William Roper (the Younger)
Colin Blakely — Matthew
Cyril Luckham - Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
Jack Gwillim - Chief Justice
Vanessa Redgrave - Anne Boleyn

The next book is “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro, BBC to be held at Dennis’s 14 April.