Winner of the 2009 Booker Prize
England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief
advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of
distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as WolseyÂÅs clerk, and later his successor.
Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber,
a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and
events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he
is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament
and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.
From one of our finest living writers, WOLF HALL that very rare thing: a truly great English
novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a
vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us
Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion and suffering and
courage.