'Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel

This is the first book in Hilary Mantel’s ‘Wolf Hall trilogy’, which has now been made into a major TV series, and has twice won the Man Booker Prize.

This brilliant novel brings the opulent, brutal world of the Tudors to life.  It is the backdrop to the rise of Thomas Cromwell, a lowborn boy, a charmer, a bully, a master of deadly intrigue, and, finally, the most powerful of Henry VIII’s coutiers, who was determined to bring England into a modern age.  Wolfhall was the home of the Seymour family, and it was from here that Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife hailed.

The ‘Wolf Hall Trilogy’ has been adapted into hugely successful stage plays. The first two books, ‘Wolf Hall’ and ‘Bring up the Bodies’ have been transformed into a multi award winning BBC television series, with the cast returning in the long awaited concluding series ‘Wolf Hall: The Mirror & the Light’.

Hilary Mantel is the author of seventeen books, including 'A Place of Greater Safety', 'Beyond Black',  'Giving Up the Ghost' and the short story collection 'The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher'.  Her latest novel, 'The Mirror & the Light', won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, while 'Wolf Hall' and 'Bring Up the Bodies' were both awarded the Man Booker Prize.  In 2014, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She sadly passed away aged seventy in 2022.

Reunited: The Great Bibles of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell - For the first time in almost 500 years, the personal Bibles of King Henry VIII and his chief advisor, Thomas Cromwell, are being brought together in an exhibition at the National Library of Wales from 21st June 2025 – 22nd November 2025.