Two years ago Hilary Mantel set the literary world on fire with Wolf Hall, her brilliant historical novel centered on the life and machinations of Thomas Cromwell an advisor first to Cardinal Wolsey then to the difficult and fiery Henry VIII.  It was gloriously written, deeply researched, and chock full of juicey Tudor details.  Her skill with her materials placed her readers in one of the most thrilling periods of English history.  Henry's desperate desire for a queen who would give him a male heir.  His bitter struggle with the papacy that ended with the establishment of the Church of England and the splitting off of England from Roman Catholic Europe.  These were the most important issues of their time, and Mantel gave us the observant and wise eyes of Thomas Cromwell through which the fascinating characters of the period, some brilliant, some avaricious, some doomed from the beginning by their belief's and their associations,

Mantel's second installment of  what will be a kind of Thomas Cromwell trilogy is called Bring up the Bodies, and deals with Cromwell's part in Henry's stormy relationship with Anne Boleyn, his second wife, with whom he became disenchanted after the birth of a daughter(Queen Elizabeth I).  Three miscarriages later Henry was courting again. Thomas Cromwell is given the assignment of bringing Anne Boleyn(a powerful woman) to make way for Henry's new bride and chance at a male heir.  Bring up the Bones is every bit the novel Wolf Hall was, with Mantel's careful prose and her ability to set up complex social situations, and of course with the fascinating voice of Cromwell leading the way.  

Anyone who was moved by Wolf Hall(Booker Prize Novel) will be doubly excited by Bring up the Bodies.  You may even want to pick up Wolf Hall again.  The third volume should be available in a year or two.

Paul Ingram