Weekend Highlight -- "Wolf Hall"

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Have you been watching the PBS television series "Wolf Hall"? I just finished episode three. Based on Hilary Mantel's two Booker Prize-winning novels about Thomas Cromwell, this series has been riveting. After seeing the plays in London last fall, I wasn't sure what to expect. I wondered how anything on television could be as good as those plays. (Go here to read more) I was wrong. What I had forgotten to factor in was the time element; with many hours to tell the story, a televised series would be more like reading the novels. Leisurely and detailed, it has the time to build up the story in a thorough and novelistic way. It also manages to feel like a contemporary political thriller. Sunday nights at "Wolf Hall" have become the highlight of the weekend.

With six episodes to sustain the narrative, create a mood, paint each beautiful scene, develop characters and prolong suspense, this television show has created a world that is complex and deep. It doesn't hurt that there is also brilliant acting, stunning medieval Tudor locations, gorgeous costumes, haunting music and masterful direction. Have you noticed how certain scenes look like a painting from the 17th century? There was a recent scene involving the sister of Cromwell's late wife sitting and sewing at a table next to a window. It looked like a painting by Holbein. The cast is fabulous, with Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell and Damien Lewis as King Henry VIII. And the pivotal female characters are played by some very talented actresses.

Speaking of these actresses, I saw a piece in "Harper's Bazaar UK" a couple of months ago about "Wolf Hall" and its female characters. It was fun to see them looking so glamorous (see photo above). They are Charity Wakefield (Mary Boleyn), Kate Phillips (Jane Seymour) , Claire Foy (Anne Boleyn) and Joanne Whalley (Catherine of Aragon). Here are a few highlights from this fascinating article:


A few years ago Hilary Mantel signed a contract with her publisher to write two books: a modern novel set in Africa, and a Tudor novel set in the court of Henry VIII. She had been working on the African novel when she decided to take a day off and play with the Tudor idea. She wrote a line of dialogue and that was it. She was delighted. She had captured her central character. Not Henry but Thomas Cromwell. He would be her leading man. She had found his voice and she was off. Wolf Hall was born.

After finishing its sequel Bring Up the Bodies, Mantel was anxious to begin the final book in the trilogy and planned to devote 2013 to writing it. However, things didn't quite work out that way. Many good things got in the way. She won the Booker Prize for the second time, the first woman and the first British writer to do so. Then there were the plays, to be followed by the television adaptation. She was in constant demand. Now she is anxious to finish the third and final book and is at peace with letting go of Cromwell. She is confident that he will live on in her readers' imaginations.

Regarding the women of "Wolf Hall," the actress Joanne Whalley, who plays Catherine of Aragon, said "You don't automatically think of them. History has been dominated by the narrative of kings and politicians, but these women had their own kind of power; they were fascinating characters who functioned within such restraints." Anne Boleyn is the most fascinating and seems to be a woman who understands her value and plays it for all it is worth. She is cool and calculating about her goals and Thomas Cromwell seems to admire her for it. They are equals in intelligence and ambition. Go here to read more.

I would love to know:

Are you watching the television series?

Did you see the plays?

Have you read the books?

Aren't we lucky to have such excellent television on PBS!

A Little London Magic

St. James Park

 I am just getting back from a wonderful trip to England. Autumn arrived while we were there, though everyone thought it felt more like Indian summer. The weather was beautiful --  sparkling sunshine and blue skies. Once I catch my breath, I will write more about the trip. But here are a few highlights from bustling London: 

 Anne Boleyn crowned as queen in "Wolf Hall"
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A performance of the breathtaking "Wolf Hall," the play based on Hillary Mantel's gripping novel about Thomas Cromwell. The drama starts out with a glittering court dance and rapidly descends into strategic plotting in dark castles. Thomas Cromwell is at the center of things as he tries to help the King get out of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon so he can marry Anne Boleyn. We watch as Cromwell rises to power and his mentor Cardinal Wolsey sinks into disgrace. Do you remember the actor Nathaniel Parker who played Inspector Lynley on the television series of the same name? He stars as King Henry VIII and is fantastic in the role. Ben Miles who plays Cromwell is also excellent. He is in every scene and you can't take your eyes off of him. Just as the novel did, this play makes history live and breathe.

 Tower of London

   The art installation at The Tower of London to commemorate 100 years since World War I. The red ceramic poppies represent fallen British soldiers and have been added every day since August. By November the moat will be full. It was a poignant sight to behold.

Tower Bridge

A walk across Tower bridge on a beautiful day is always a treat

Peter Harrington Rare Books

A visit to the lovely Peter Harrington Rare Books was a reminder of the beauty of books. I have never seen so many beautiful editions of favorite books in one place. This visit resulted in an exciting purchase: the five volumes of "The Diary of Virginia Woolf." It will be fun to find the perfect bookshelf for these.

St. Mawes, Corwall

And then there was Cornwall...

It was easy to conjure up a Daphne du Maurier novel during our first walk into the little seaside village of St. Mawes on a breezy, sparkling morning. The seagulls were cawing as we walked along the cottage-lined road that leads into the village. The boat-filled harbour was in the distance and the water was just beginning to catch a few glints of sunshine. A dreamy, enchanting place. I bought a few novels set in this beautiful part of England which I am now reading. Can't wait to do a blog post on all the books I bought on this trip! And more on London, Cornwall, Devon, and the Cotswolds. To be continued...   

Summer Bookshelf

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What are you reading? Have you found a book this summer that you can't put down? My current summer read has transported me to the royal court of sixteenth-century England. I am immersed in the world of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell. Hillary Mantel's brilliant book Bring Up the Bodies, the sequel to Wolf Hall, brings this world alive in such a vivid way that you feel you are there. This book is a hard one to get out of your head; it seeps into your mind and you may find yourself dreaming about it. The story is told from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell. You are walking the streets of London with Cromwell as he strategizes how to satisfy the King's whims, visits the King's first wife Katherine in prison, and carefully negotiates with the current Queen, Anne Boleyn. You are there as he meets with the Seymour family to negotiate a possible marriage and watch the demeanor of the demure Jane Seymour, knowing that the King has his eyes on her for his next wife. And all the while, Cromwell is trying to learn from the mistakes of those who went before him, those who died because they did not make the King's desires a reality. He is doing his best to be indispensable to the King so that he will survive. 

I love that Hilary Mantel has created a living and breathing world for the reader. Sixteenth-century England comes to life in this book and we feel as if we understand it for the first time. It is historical fiction that has the feel of an engrossing novel. The story begins in the autumn of 1535...


"The king had left Whitehall the week of Thomas More's death, a miserable dripping week in July, the hoof prints of the royal entourage sinking deep into the mud as they tacked their way across to Windsor. Since then the progress has taken in a swathe of the western counties; the Cromwell aides, having finished up the king's business at the London end, met up with the royal train in mid-August. The king and his companions sleep sound in new houses of rosy brick, in old houses whose fortifications have crumbed away or been pulled down, and in fantasy castles like toys, castles never capable of fortification, with walls a cannonball would punch in as if they were paper. England has enjoyed fifty years of peace. This is the Tudors' covenant; peace is what they offer. Every household strives to put forward its best show for the king, and we've seen some panic-stricken plastering these last weeks, some speedy stonework, as his hosts hurry to display the Tudor rose beside their own devices. They search out and obliterate any trace of Katherine, the queen that was, smashing with hammers the pomegranates of Aragon, their splitting segments and their squashed and flying seeds. Instead -- if there is no time for carving -- the falcon of Anne Boleyn is crudely painted up on hatchments."


The cast of characters in this famous episode of history -- the King, his wives and families, his court,  the Boleyn and Seymour families, the ambassadors, clerics, courtiers --  are all richly imagined and live as we've never seen them before. The central character Thomas Cromwell is at the heart of everything and the person we get to know most intimately. His household and its inhabitants are depicted as a vibrant and flourishing little world of its own with Cromwell as the master who knows every detail of its daily workings. The abilities that make him indispensable as Secretary to the King are the same ones he applies to running his estate. His past life and the journey that brought him to his present position of power are all laid out. As Hilary Mantel reminds us in the "Author's Note," this book is not about Anne Boleyn or Henry VIII, but about the career of Thomas Cromwell and how this crucial period of time might have looked from his point of view. His personality and inner life are given a sparkling realness in Mantel's book. We feel that we know this man.

Image source

By the way, I just got back from New York (more about that later!) where I visited the Frick Museum  and made a beeline for the portraits of Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More by Hans Holbein that hang side by side. I have seen them before but realized this time I would view them with new eyes. With Hillary Mantel's narrative fresh in my mind, I gazed at Thomas Cromwell and could see the intensity and ruthlessness of the man captured in this painting. I had the chills thinking about how instrumental he was in changing the course of English history.

You may have thought nothing new could be said on this topic, but in "Bring Up The Bodies" Hillary Mantel has breathed fresh life into the story and made it come to life like nothing else has before. We all know where the events are heading, but it's so delicious to be along for the ride as it is told by a master storyteller.

What a book! I can't put it down.

What are you reading?