The Mirror and The Light

If you managed to stock up on library books before the library closed due to Covid-19 Alert Level 2 you will be feeling very fortunate indeed. I was very lucky to be locked in with Hilary Mantel's latest novel in the Wolf Hall series about Thomas Cromwell, The Mirror and The Light. A book this size, at nearly 900 pages, would normally take me longer than 28 days to read. But with lockdown in force, I have been able to read it at a leisurely pace and without the threat of a looming due date. While I was reading, I watched the BBC television series Wolf Hall, available on TV One on demand, to refresh my memory of events in the two earlier novels.

Mantel has won the Booker Prize for Fiction twice, for Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, the preceding novels in her series. I believe this novel is her best so far and worthy of a third prize. Reading these novels is benefitted by some knowledge of the history of Henry VIII's reign and his Tudor court. Mantel provides a comprehensive cast of characters and two family trees to help you unravel who is related to who, and who does what at court. The two earlier novels chart Cromwell's rise from the son of a Putney blacksmith to the secretary of Cardinal Wolsey, Henry's Lord Chancellor. After Wolsey's downfall and death Cromwell becomes a valued and loyal servant to the King. His efforts to obtain a divorce for the King from his wife Katherine of Aragon to facilitate his subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn result not only in Cromwell's advancement but also in the King's ex-communication from the Roman Catholic Church and the start of the English Reformation. Before long Henry becomes tired of Anne Boleyn and enamoured of her lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. Cromwell, who had helped Anne rise to become Queen of England, now orchestrates her downfall under the pretext of adultery. Her execution, and that of her accused lovers, comes to haunt him in the third novel.

The Mirror and the Light is narrated in the present tense which conveys a sense of immediacy and immersion in the Tudor world. It is told entirely from Thomas Cromwell's viewpoint, and you feel that you inhabit his skull and are perceiving the world through his senses, what he sees, smells, hears at the moment of experience. In the opening scene of the novel you are at Anne Boleyn's execution and you can almost smell her blood as he pays the executioner. You are privy to his thoughts and memories, but on many occasions you are surprised by something that is revealed about his character. The revelation may be of his largesse and generosity or it may be a glimpse of the darker and more calculating side to his nature. Mantel has created a masterful and complex character whose world is described in sensous detail; his powers of observation are extremely acute but he remains at times a secretive and unknowable figure - qualities perhaps advantageous to survive the vagaries and intrigues of the Tudor Court.

As administrator extraordinaire to the capricious Henry VIII, and through his sharp mind, contacts, spies, and robust energy, Cromwell enriches and advances his household and interests. He rises from his lowly origin to become the Lord Privy Seal and ultimately a peer of the realm and the Earl of Essex. But he comes to realise he has raised himself too high, and his old enemy the Duke of Norfolk, the second highest noble in England after the King and uncle to Anne Boleyn and Henry's fifth wife, conspires with other enemies and two of Cromwell's protégés to bring him down. He is charged with crimes of treason, stripped of all his titles, properties and assets, and is escorted to the Tower. He finds himself in the Queen's lodging, where Anne Boleyn was imprisoned before her execution. And like her, his end is with his head on the chopping block. (For the record Anne lost her head while kneeling, from a French executioner's sword made from Toledo steel). Highly recommended.

Can't wait for the book? Why not try listening to the BBC Sounds abridged podcast of The Mirror and the Light.

Also available as an eaudiobook and an ebook.

If you would like to read more about Thomas Cromwell or Anne Boleyn:

Thomas Cromwell: A Life. Diarmid MacCulloch

The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England's Most Notorious Queen. Susan Bordo