The Mirror and the Light

"And you can’t stop there. Though the final instalment, The Mirror & the Light , did not earn Mantel her forecast hat-trick of Booker Prizes, it is at least as brilliantly written as the first two, as we witness Cromwell’s final defeat. Expect intrigue, humour and a non-linear narrative. If you have already read and loved Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy, you may be interested in our list of recommended books like Wolf Hall ."

"You may also be pleased to hear that there are new books out shortly from the Booker Prize winners Julian Barnes ( The Man in the Red Coat ), Aravind Adiga ( Amnesty ) and Anne Enright ( Actress ). Hilary Mantel, of course, has twice triumphed at the Booker with the first two instalments of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies . The third, The Mirror and the Light , will chart Cromwell’s inevitable demise and its publication in March is inarguably the literary event of the year. I’ve had it on pre-order for months, and a currently re-reading the earlier books in breathless anticipation. Join me, why don’t you. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . Fans of Anne Tyler can look forward to her latest novel Redhead at the Side of the Road , out in April, while fantasy fanatics will be pleased to hear that Hugo Award-winner N K Jemison will be launching a new trilogy with The City We Became at the end of March 2020."

"Launched to huge fanfare in spring… only for it to be immediately drowned out by the thumping pulse of Covid lockdowns and border closures, Mantel’s stunning conclusion to her double- Booker Prize -winning Wolf Hall trilogy took us by the hand and led us, by circuitous means, to the inevitable demise of Thomas Cromwell on the executioner’s block. I knew how it had to end, anticipated it, and yet – after approximately 120 hours in the company of “He, Cromwell” – I wasn’t yet ready to give him up. Mantel is the most deft and masterful of writers. Ominous foreshadowing is conveyed subtly by way of allusion, sideways glances, and deadpan asides; warnings are missed, mistakes are made, resentments build. Through Mantel’s eyes, the great anti-hero of English history is reinvented as a man of thought and care and canny, who plays his mercurial master like a lute, until he doesn’t. The fall, when it comes, is swift and merciless. Right until the final pages I was still guessing as to how it would unfold. And the epilogue – detailing Henry VIII’s later regret – hangs with me still. I must say that I missed Anne Boleyn’s acid wit and neurotic energy, but she makes her occasional appearances in flashbacks thanks to Mantel’s habit of weaving and interweaving past and present. Plus, our promise of a troubled future: Bloody Mary rising up in the wings, bitterness twisting and hardening inside her. What will she write next? I can’t wait. Hilary Mantel could write a shopping list and I would savour it."

"No subdued reaction from the judges! Writing a book that closes a trilogy but also stands alone is in itself a challenge that defeats many, but that’s the least of what Hilary Mantel achieves. The Mirror and the Light isn’t just a miracle of imagination, with even the smallest character—Dick Purser, keeper of the guard dogs, Sexton the fool—completely vivid and memorable, it’s also a miracle of pace. We start with an ending—Anne Boleyn’s head has just been severed. Nobody does an execution like Hilary Mantel. If you haven’t already read A Place of Greater Safety , her French Revolution novel— —just see how she manages the executions of Desmoulins and Danton. In The Mirror and The Light , after this heart-stopping panorama, the pace slowly but inexorably increases as the complications of Cromwell’s ambitions and responsibilities multiply. We know what the end will be, but the tension, the tension!"