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Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

I was excited to pick up this book from my local Library, as I had really enjoyed Wolf Hall a couple of years ago. Someone from work lent me their copy of Wolf Hall and I was so interested in Thomas Cromwell that I bought Robert Hutchinson’s biography, just so that I could learn more about him. Hilary Mantel’s imagined Cromwell seems a bit more human than the Cromwell described in the biography.

Bring up the Bodies did not disappoint. I was taken straight back to where we finished up last time and immediately drawn into the problem of how to give the King what he wants. I was taken straight back to the ambiguous nature of Cromwell’s place at court and his treatment at the hands of various courtiers.

One of the things that I loved about Wolf Hall was how Hilary Mantel gave depth and character to Thomas Cromwell, usually reviled as a villain. He seemed to be at war with himself for much of the book and even when he was remembering the past, there was some conflict between actuality and reminiscence.

The second instalment in Hilary Mantel’s imagined life of Thomas Cromwell is much more contained given that the events take place over a relatively short space of time. In Bring up the Bodies, we see less of Cromwell’s accumulation of wealth and property as he concentrates on the task at hand. The fraught relationship with Norfolk is still there, as is the friendship with Chapuys.

I look forward to the next story as Cromwell becomes more and more embroiled in the king’s business and as Hilary Mantel continues to imagine a much more rounded personality for him than the one usually portrayed.