Bring Up The Bodies - Hilary Mantel

Published by Fourth Estate: London, 2013 (2012).
Book Two of the Wolf Hall Trilogy: 'Wolf Hall'; 'Bring Up The Bodies'; 'The Mirror and the Light'.

The second novel in a series charting the life of Thomas Cromwell, Bring Up The Bodies follows the template set down by Wolf Hall: Cromwell is such a central figure to the book that almost any use of the word 'he' refers to Cromwell himself, yet he is such a closed figure that his true motivations are only revealed occasionally. We see Cromwell maneuvering and manipulating, but whether he is serving his own motivations or those of his liege, Henry VIII, remain mostly concealed. Even the 'side' of various debates can remain murky, with Cromwell happy to befriend even those he means to bring down in order to fully take advantage of the situation.

Bring Up The Bodies, like its predecessor, won the Booker prize, and in both cases I feel that this award was earned. The books are both very well written, very clever retellings of historical events. Bodies has a little bit more crude language and suggestive material than Wolf Hall did (at times becoming a little off-putting), but that is also partially a reflection of the subject matter of the book - for now we have reached the point in Henry's reign when he is beginning to fall out of love with Anne Boleyn, and the downfall of his second wife is a very tawdry affair. Accusations of unfaithfulness and even incest (that old Booker staple plot-point) are thrown around, and as they become matters of public discourse, they become quite crude conversation points. 

Yet, despite this, Bodies is another Booker book that I (on the whole) enjoyed. I don't enjoy it quite as much as Wolf Hall, but it is a great companion to the first book. I am also curious to hunt out the final entry at some point as well.

Completed 29 January 2022.



(Alphabet Soup Books)



(Bookerworm)

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