Historical Fiction: While you wait for Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel clearly hit a homer with Wolf Hall and her latest, Bring up the Bodies, both biographical novels of Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VIII’s chief minister for eight years until the king executed him for treason and heresy. The Library’s waiting list for “Bodies” is at 200. “What can we read while we wait” you ask?

Why not wait in the Tower of London with Anne Boleyn by reading Alison Weir’s narrative biography, The Lady in the Tower? A prolific author of both historical fiction and non-fiction history, Weir dissects the final four months of Boleyn’s life as her appointment with the executioner draws nigh. New perspectives on Thomas Cromwell’s political machinations explored by Weir make this good background reading for Mantel’s fans. In Queen of Subtleties by Susannah Dunn, Queen Anne tells her own story from the discomfort of prison, portraying herself as a righteous victim. A second viewpoint in the story, that of the royal confectioner, betrays the queen’s alleged dalliance with the court musician.

Lest your sympathy for Anne Boleyn slant your view, perhaps indulging in a “historical entertainment” by Carolly Erickson called The Favored Queen will lend a balanced view. Unlike the impeccably researched works of Alison Weir, many of the events and relationships described in this novel are truly fictional. The author’s portrayal of Queen Anne from the perspective of Jane Seymour, a servant of the Queen, however, might raise a few eyebrows. Jane, who eventually marries Henry herself, speaks of Anne Boleyn as nearly psychotic and prone to hysteria.

But back to Cromwell. The capricious King and his treacherous reign are vividly brought to life in In the Lion’s Court, Derek Wilson’s factual examination of the six Thomases who wielded the most political and religious power in Britain at the time: Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Howard, Thomas Wriothesley and Thomas Cranmer. In the introduction to the book, Wilson proposes a “mortuary mnemonic” to help us recall how each Thomas met his end:                                        

“Died, beheaded, beheaded,                                
Self-slaughtered, burned, survived.”