Wolf Hall (Audiobook)

Synopsis: Tudor England. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is charged with securing his divorce. Into this atmosphere of distrust comes Thomas Cromwell - a man as ruthlessly 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.

Review: Bliss! I loved every minute of it. A fascinating fictionalised account of the life of Thomas Cromwell, from his humble beginnings living in Putney as a blacksmith's son, to his position as Henry VIII's favourite right hand man. We join the story as Thomas is preparing to run away from his drunken and abusive father. He recounts the details of his fathers latest sadistic attack, and contrary to my preconceived ideas, it wasn't long before I was completely in sympathy with him and wishing him far away from Putney. I know Thomas Cromwell's history, I've read about it lots of times, but this account calls for you to throw those facts out of your head and rediscover him anew. It wasn't difficult, I wanted to like him (for the purposes of this story anyway). There are challenging times ahead, lots of instances where his behaviour is less than palatable, but the groundwork has been done by then, you're already predisposed in his favour. You refuse to believe that he is a bad man at heart, he is loyal to his friends and affectionate to his family. When his motives seem questionable later on, you find excuses for him (though, by the end of the book, he does push your loyalties to the limit.)

The book has a great cast of characters, none better. The great Tudor role call of Henry VIII, the Boleyn's, Catherine of Aragon, Mary Tudor, Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More and Thomas Cranmer. The Boleyn's are described as backstabbing, manipulative control freaks. In contrast to Cromwell, and against the popular view, Thomas More's depiction is less than flattering. He is seen as tormentor and torturer. Cardinal Wolsey fairs better and I loved his relationship with Cromwell. Cromwell admires and loves the Cardinal but, and perhaps this is the first sign we see of his ambitious self interest, when the Cardinal fails to secure the looked for annulment between Katherine and Henry and is ousted from his position and summoned to the tower, Cromwell refuses to sink with him. He manoeuvres himself into a position of trust with Henry and the Boleyn's, and as Wolsey falls, he rises.

I was hoping against hope that the story was going to take us all the way to Cromwell's fall from grace and subsequent execution. Alas it didn't, we didn't even get as far as the demise of Anne Boleyn, though she was definitely on shaky ground as we left her (if only she had known about getting Henry to eat more sardines and wear looser boxer shorts, all, including her head, might not have been lost.) The title is a bit of a mystery, Wolf Hall .. the ancestral seat of the Seymour's ... is only mentioned fleetingly but what little is written about it is intriguing and it was obviously a place of great interest to Cromwell.

Although often criticised as unauthentic (good job, we'd never understand it if it was) I loved the dialogue. For instance, More's remark .. “lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning and when you come back that night he’ll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks’ tongues, and all the gaolers will owe him money” and Cromwell's observations of the King when he is called to see him very early one morning (a frightening, bowel loosening experience for anyone) to explain away a bad dream of Henry's “The sable lining creeps down over his hands, as if he were a monster-king, growing his own fur.” .. fantastic. Also I didn't have any problems, as I know lot's of people have, with the lack of speech marks or overuse of pronoun's, probably because it was being read to me - perhaps reading it would have been a different experience (though I quake at the thought of 600 odd pages).

In the main I loved Simon Slater's reading, though his narration for Thomas's More and Cranmer were a little odd. Thomas More in particular sounded like a regular pantomime villain, but then Hilary's depiction of him rather suited that.

I loved it and could have listened all day (and sometimes did). I was busy with some stitching and the story just flew by.