Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel is the sequel to the Man Booker Prize winning Wolf Hall. I am really looking forward to reading this but unfortunately we all have to wait a little longer.

Australian release date: 01 May 2012

UK release date:10 May 2012

For now you can enjoy the synopsis!

‘My boy Thomas, give him a dirty look and he’ll gouge your eye out. Trip him, and he’ll cut off your leg,’ says Walter Cromwell in the year 1500. ‘But if you don’t cut across him he’s a very gentleman. And he’ll stand anyone a drink.’

By 1535 Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith’s son, is far from his humble origins. Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes have risen with those of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife, for whose sake Henry has broken with Rome and created his own church. But Henry’s actions have forced England into dangerous isolation, and Anne has failed to do what she promised: bear a son to secure the Tudor line. When Henry visits Wolf Hall, Cromwell watches as Henry falls in love with the silent, plain Jane Seymour. The minister sees what is at stake: not just the king’s pleasure, but the safety of the nation. As he eases a way through the sexual politics of the court, its miasma of gossip, he must negotiate a ‘truth’ that will satisfy Henry and secure his own career. But neither minister nor king will emerge undamaged from the bloody theatre of Anne’s final days.

In ‘Bring up the Bodies’, sequel to the Man Booker Prize-winning ‘Wolf Hall’, Hilary Mantel explores one of the most mystifying and frightening episodes in English history: the destruction of Anne Boleyn. This new novel is a speaking picture, an audacious vision of Tudor England that sheds its light on the modern world. It is the work of one of our great writers at the height of her powers.

Last year my sister was lucky enough to interview the very talented Hilary Mantel for an article published in Australia’s Who Weekly Magazine. I thought it might be nice to share with you the insights she offers.

Why are readers insatiable when it comes to the Tudor period? And what drew you to it?

Henry’s story has all the ingredients of great soap opera, but it’s also a deeply interesting era in English history. The decade between 1530-1540, when my character Thomas Cromwell was a major political force, was a decade that shaped modern England. What mainly drew me was the character of Thomas Cromwell himself. He’s an enigmatic, fascinating man. Blacksmith’s son to Earl of Essex  – how did he do it?

* Have you watched the cable television show The Tudors, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII?

I’m 4 episodes in to the 3rd series, just waiting for Anne of Cleves to show up.  It fascinates me – whoever came up with the deeply unlikely idea of casting the weedy little JRM as the athletic, powerful, six foot plus Henry, who towered over most of his courtiers?  It’s fantasy, of course, not history. And I do pity the cast for some of the lines they have to deliver.

* How do you feel about being a front-runner for the Man Booker Prize?

Waiting for the Man Booker judges to pronounce is very hard. I am trying to get on with my work, but it’s hard to keep cool when you know the prize makes such a difference.

* Is it true that you once lived in a building that used to be a lunatic asylum?

I still live in an apartment (under the clock tower) in the former Brookwood asylum, which was built in the 1860s and converted for residential use about 10 years ago. Some of the Victorian hospitals were very beautiful buildings and it’s good that they are preserved. It’s a peaceful place to live. I haven’t come across any ghosts.

* Reading Wolf Hall was like time travel for me. I find myself wondering if you might have some psychic connection to these events and characters, so truthfully were they rendered. What do you think?

I’m delighted if it felt like time travel  – but that’s not psychic power, that’s research. I do care a lot about the people I write about, and I try very hard to get them right. History isn’t always tidy or convenient, but you have to ease your imagination around its shape, rather than distorting it to fit your preconceptions. I think very differently from the makers of The Tudors. It’s best to stick as close to the facts as you can, I find. Where the facts run out, you must work hard to come up with a plausible version on the basis of the information you have.
* Do you have any plans to visit Australia?

I have had very happy visits to Adelaide and Sydney in the past, but because my health’s not great I don’t want to make the journey at present. I look forward to the prospect of visiting again in a couple of years.

Read the full article- ‘Unfreezing antique feeling’.