It’s not often I feel moved to take issue with a “Times” columnist about a book. However, in response to Michael Gove today, proclaiming to the world that he didn’t like “Wolf Hall”, I must tell him, and the rest of you for that matter, that I am half way through it and I am absolutely loving it.
Hilary Mantel is a fantastic writer, drawing the character of the book’s main protagonist, Thomas Cromwell, a lawyer from very humble beginnings violently abused by his father, who rose to the highest office, in a quite brilliantly understated fashion. In fact, one of the things which makes the book so good is it’s quiet grasp of the period and its sure footedness about Henry VIII and the tempestuous times he both created and survived.
I should declare and interest. As a history graduate I spent much time immersed in the 16th century, the delights of which are now being brought to our attention on TV as well as the more recognised scholarly channels. “Wolf Hall” brings the period alive and gives us pause for thought about our own times. Although kings and queens no longer behead those who cross them and religion does not consume our lives, this book tells us much about the immutable nature of some forms of human behaviour.
