England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith's son from Putney emerges from the spring's bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, before Jane dies giving birth to the male heir he most craves.
Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry's regime to breaking point, Cromwell's robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?
With The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man's vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.
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[Once the queen's head is severed, he walks away]***
(@4thEstateBooks, 5 March 2020, 912 pages, hardback, bought from @AmazonUK)
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Mantel is one of my favourite writers. I loved her first two books about Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies and have been eagerly waiting for this concluding part for a few years. I had HUGE expectations for this book. Mantel more than exceeded them. This picks up right where Bring up the Bodies ends, moments after Anne Boleyn is executed. Henry VII and Cromwell continue their plotting and scheming through Henry's brief marriage to Jane Seymour and the birth of his heir. Henry is a monster, Mantel really brings to life how unhinged and disturbed he really was. However, Jane seems to be the only wife he truly felt anything for, not out of real love but because she gave him a son and are far as his twisted mind is concerned, the only wife who did her duty. The characters in this book are as fascinating as they are repellent. I didn't like any of them but I still loved the book, unusual for me. When Henry's ill-fated marriage to Anne of Cleaves falls apart, Henry of course blames Cromwell and I actually felt pity for him. Mantel makes it clear how unstable Henry is. One day, he can love a person and sing their praises but the next day if he doesn't like the smell of their fart or the way they breathe he will drum up charges of infidelity, witchcraft and whatever else pops into his head to justify executing them. What a horrible man. Cromwell is far from perfect but I felt so sorry for him in the final chapters are he realises all his scheming has come to nothing. This is a breath-taking book.
