2024 Cromwell Trilogy Reading Schedule
2024 Cromwell Trilogy Reading Schedule
NB: Page numbers are only a guide. They are correct for the Fourth Estate paperback editions.
Wolf Hall
Week 1: Across the Narrow Sea / Paternity
Monday 1 January – Sunday 7 January
Pages 1 – 33 (33 pages)
Week 2: At Austin Friars / Visitation
Monday 8 January – Sunday 14 January
Pages 34 – 64 (31 pages)
Week 3: An Occult History of Britain (part 1)
Monday 15 January – Sunday 21 January
Pages 65 – 107 (43 pages) (section ending: “All the rivers run to the sea, but the seas are not yet full.”)
Week 4: An Occult History of Britain (part 2)
Monday 22 January – Sunday 28 January
Pages 108 – 153 (46 pages) (section starting: “Morgan Williams shrinks year by year.”)
Week 5: Make or Mar / Three-Card Trick
Monday 29 January – Sunday 4 February
Pages 154 – 197 (44 pages)
Week 6: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (part 1)
Monday 5 February – Sunday 11 February
Pages 198 – 236 (39 pages) (section ending: “Wolsey is a merciful man, but surely: only up to a point.”)
Week 7: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (part 2)
Monday 12 February – Sunday 18 February
Pages 236 – 271 (36 pages) (section starting: “Mary Shelton is in attendance; she looks up, simpers.”)
Week 8: The Dead Complain of Their Burial / Arrange Your Face (part 1)
Monday 19 February – Sunday 25 February
Pages 272 – 305 (34 pages) (section ending: “…because in the end we all come home to God.”)
Week 9: Arrange Your Face (part 2)
Monday 26 February – Sunday 3 March
Pages 305 – 337 (33 pages) (section starting: “Lent saps the spirits, as of course it is designed to do.”)
Week 10: ‘Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?’ (part 1)
Monday 4 March – Sunday 10 March
Pages 338 – 384 (47 pages) (section ending: “This girl, you know, she claims she can raise the dead.”)
Week 11: ‘‘Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?” (part 2) / Early Mass
Monday 11 March – Sunday 17 March
Pages 385 – 416 (32 pages) (section starting: “At John Petyt’s funeral…”)
Week 12: Anna Regina (part 1)
Monday 18 March – Sunday 24 March
Pages 419 – 462 (44 pages) (section ending: “But when they turn back, Frith is waiting…”)
Week 13: Anna Regina (part 2)
Monday 25 March – Sunday 31 March
Pages 462 – 483 (22 pages) (section starting: “Four days.”)
Week 14: Devil’s Spit / A Painter’s Eye
Monday 1 April – Sunday 7 April
Pages 484 – 527 (44 pages)
Week 15: Supremacy
Monday 8 April – Sunday 14 April
Pages 531 – 579 (49 pages)
Week 16: The Map of Christendom (part 1)
Monday 15 April – Sunday 21 April
Pages 580 – 620 (41 pages) (section ending: “…take your sword in your hand.”)
Week 17: The Map of Christendom (part 2) / To Wolf Hall
Monday 22 April – Sunday 28 April
Pages 620 – 650 (31 pages) (section starting: “The Duke of Norfolk comes to visit him…”)
Bring up the Bodies
Week 18: Falcons
Monday 29 April – Sunday 5 May
Pages 1 – 35 (34 pages)
Week 19: Crows (part 1)
Monday 6 May – Sunday 12 May
Pages 36 – 75 (40 pages) (section ending: “If she should die within the year…”)
Week 20: Crows (part 2)
Monday 13 May – Sunday 19 May
Pages 75 – 119 (45 pages) (section starting: “But look: we have sat here too long!”)
Week 21: Angels
Monday 20 May – Sunday 26 May
Pages 120 – 183 (59 pages)
Week 22: The Black Book (part 1)
Monday 27 May – Sunday 2 June
Pages 184 – 223 (40 pages) (section ending: “But her hands and feet are cold…”)
Week 23: The Black Book (part 2)
Monday 3 June – Sunday 9 June
Pages 223 – 255 (33 pages) (section starting: “So here’s the Duke of Norfolk…”)
Week 24: The Black Book (part 3)
Monday 10 June – Sunday 16 June
Pages 255 – 287 (33 pages) (section starting: “William Fitzwilliam comes to the Rolls House…”)
Week 25: Master of Phantoms (part 1)
Monday 17 June – Sunday 23 June
Pages 288 – 323 (36 pages) (section ending: “And lock it in your strongbox.”)
Week 26: Master of Phantoms (Part 2/5)
Monday 24 June – Sunday 30 June
Pages 323 – 361 (37 pages) (section starting: “Mark at Stepney.”)
Week 27: Master of Phantoms (part 3)
Monday 1 July – Sunday 7 July
Pages 361 – 406 (46 pages) (section starting: “He has asked the king to keep to his privy chamber,”)
Week 28: Master of Phantoms (part 4)
Monday 8 July – Sunday 14 July
Pages 406 – 441 (36 pages) (section starting: “May is blossoming…”)
Week 29: Master of Phantoms (part 5) / Spoils
Monday 15 July – Sunday 21 July
Pages 441 – 482 (42 pages) (section starting: “The queen wears scarlet and black…”)
The Mirror and the Light
Week 30: Wreckage (I)
Monday 22 July – Sunday 28 July
Pages 3 – 25 (23 pages)
First line: Once the queen’s head is severed, he walks away.
Last line: It is 20 May 1536.
Week 31: Salvage (Part 1)
Monday 29 July – Sunday 4 August
Pages 27 – 77 (51 pages)
First line: ‘Where’s my orange coat?’
Last line: …feeling as if for the first time the beat of his own heart.
Week 32: Salvage (Part 2)
Monday 5 August – Sunday 11 August
Pages 77 – 116 (40 pages)
First line: In his room at the Tower, Thomas Wyatt is sitting at the table where he left him…
Last line: …his burdened and oppressed flesh the place where all arguments come to rest.
Week 33: Salvage (Part 3)
Monday 12 August – Sunday 18 August
Pages 116 – 165 (50 pages)
First line: At the Tower, Francis Bryan says, ‘Was this where you kept Tom Wyatt?'
Last line: ‘London, thou art the flower of cities all.’
Week 34: Wreckage (II) (Part 1)
Monday 19 August – Sunday 25 August
Pages 167 – 209 (43 pages)
First line: Do you know why they say, ‘There’s no smoke without fire?’
Last line: He says, ‘You must learn to use my title, madam.’
Week 35: Wreckage (II) (Part 2)
Monday 26 August – Sunday 1 September
Pages 209 – 251 (43 pages)
First line: As he walks into Autin Friars he meets Richard Cromwell.
Last line: He stood with his back to the brick, feeling the beating of his own heart: waiting to see what he would do next.
Week 36: Augmentation
Monday 2 September – Sunday 8 September
Pages 255 – 277 (23 pages)
First line: The dead man comes out of the Well with Two Buckets…
Last line: …when they fall into bed at night they are tired beyond all temptation; and when they die, they go to Heaven.
Week 37: Five Wounds
Monday 9 September – Sunday 15 September
Pages 279 – 320 (42 pages)
First line: Rumours of Tyndale’s death seep through England as smoke leaks through thatch.
Last line: God help us for now is the time.
Week 38: Vile Blood (Part 1)
Monday 16 September – Sunday 22 September
Pages 321 – 355 (35 pages)
First line: Aske: he is a petty gentleman…
Last line: Sexton says, ‘I could smell him from here.’
Week 39: Vile Blood (Part 2)
Monday 23 September – Sunday 29 September
Pages 356 – 395 (40 pages)
First line: Bess Darrell is a flitting presence by candlelight, a wraith.
Last line: Try and keep cheerful.
Week 40: The Bleach Fields
Monday 30 September – Sunday 6 October
Pages 399 – 435 (37 pages)
First line: When you become a great man, you meet kinsfolk you never knew you had.
Last line: …and somewhere it is written that Cromwell is his name.
Week 41: The Image of the King (Part 1)
Monday 7 October – Sunday 13 October
Pages 437 – 477 (41 pages)
First line: Hans does not like the pavonazzo.
Last line: Legs that could never stagger, feet never lose the path.
Week 42: The Image of the King (Part 2) / Broken on the Body
Monday 14 October – Sunday 20 October
Pages 478 – 520 (43 pages)
First line: As July comes in Lord Latimer is down from the north…
Last line: Gregory says, ‘My lord father, who will you let the king marry next?’
Week 43: Nonsuch
Monday 21 October – Sunday 27 October
Pages 523 – 562 (40 pages)
First line: ‘My lord?’ a boy says. ‘A gravedigger is here.’
Last line: …and the name of the palace is Nonsuch.
Week 44: Corpus Christi (Part 1)
Monday 28 October – Sunday 3 November
Pages 563 – 598 (36 pages)
First line: Wyatt has followed the Emperor from the shores of Spain to Nice…
Last line: It’s not worth it. Nobody’s worth it.
Week 45: Corpus Christi (Part 2) / Inheritance
Monday 4 November – Sunday 10 November
Pages 599 – 625 (27 pages)
First line: In the first week of November he arrests Lord Montague and the Marquis of Exeter.
Last line: He is afraid it will answer back.
Week 46: Ascension Day (Part 1)
Monday 11 November – Sunday 17 November
Pages 629 – 651 (23 pages)
First line: ‘Call-Me wants a picture of the king,’
Last line: When you look at him these days you think of Jupiter, planet of increase.
Week 47: Ascension Day (Part 2)
Monday 18 November – Sunday 24 November
Pages 651 – 682 (32 pages)
First line: One morning after Easter he wakes with a heavy, aching head, his neck stiff.
Last line: ‘Mid-August,’ he writes. ‘Five days. Wolf Hall.’
Week 48: Twelfth Night
Monday 25 November – Sunday 1 December
Pages 683 – 718 (36 pages)
First line: In August Hans rolls up the bride, brings her home, and slaps her on a panel for the king’s inspection.
Last line: The king will meet her at Blackheath, conduct her to Greenwich palace, and marry her by Twelfth Night.
Week 49: Magnificence (Part 1)
Monday 2 December – Sunday 8 December
Pages 719 – 765 (47 pages)
First line: The king’s new castle at Deal is a way station for Anna to wash her hands…
Last line: The loss of the boy is like a cold wind on his neck.
Week 50: Magnificence (Part 2)
Monday 9 December – Sunday 15 December
Pages 765 – 806 (42 pages)
First line: When the court moves to Westminster, they go by river…
Last line: The flint sparkles like sunlight on the sea.
Week 51: Mirror (Part 1)
Monday 16 December – Sunday 22 December
Pages 809 – 847 (39 pages)
First line: Sunset, Christophe stands on the threshold.
Last line: As Wyatt writes, Lauda finem: praise the end.
Week 52: Mirror (Part 2) / Light
Monday 23 December – Sunday 29 December
Pages 847 – 875 (29 pages)
First line: Edmund Walsingham, the Lieutenant of the Tower, comes next day.
Last line: …tracking the light along the wall.