2025 Wolf Crawl Reading Schedule

A slow read of Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy

Hello Wolf Crawlers!

This is our reading schedule for 2025.

Every Wednesday, you will receive a post from me with discussion and resources for that week’s reading. You can chat with fellow readers in the comment section of each post. To receive these posts, turn on notifications for 2025 Wolf Crawl in your settings.

Everything related to the slow read can be found here:

Some long chapters have been divided across weeks. I have included opening and closing sentences and page numbers.

Wolf Hall

Week 1: Across the Narrow Sea / Paternity

Wednesday 1 January – Tuesday 7 January
Fourth Estate: Pages 1–33
Picador: Pages 3–30
First Line: ‘So now get up.’
Last Line: A black-faced imp with a trident is pricking his calloused heels.

Week 2: At Austin Friars / Visitation

Wednesday 8 January – Tuesday 14 January
Fourth Estate: Pages 34–64
Picador: Pages 31–59
First Line: Lizzie is still up.
Last Line: …my lord won’t be poisoned.

Week 3: An Occult History of Britain (Part 1/2)

Wednesday 15 January – Tuesday 21 January
Fourth Estate: Pages 65–107
Picador: Pages 60–99
First Line: Once, in the days of time immemorial…
Last Line: All the rivers run to the sea, but the seas are not yet full.

Week 4: An Occult History of Britain (Part 2/2)

Wednesday 22 January – Tuesday 28 January
Fourth Estate: Pages 108–152
Picador: Pages 99–141
First Line: Morgan Williams shrinks year by year.
Last Line: It is 19 October 1529.

Week 5: Make or Mar / Three-Card Trick

Wednesday 29 January – Tuesday 4 February
Fourth Estate: Pages 154–197
Picador: Pages 142–182
First Line: Halloween: the world’s edge seeps and bleeds.
Last Line: ‘— sit down with the Boleyns.’

Week 6: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 1/2)

Wednesday 5 February – Tuesday 11 February
Fourth Estate: Pages 198–236
Picador: Pages 183–218
First Line: He arrives early at York Place.
Last Line: Wolsey is a merciful man, but surely: only up to a point.

Week 7: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 2/2)

Wednesday 12 February – Tuesday 18 February
Fourth Estate: Pages 236–271
Picador: Pages 218–250
First Line: Mary Shelton is in attendance; she looks up, simpers.
Last Line: ‘Leave a space.’

Week 8: The Dead Complain of Their Burial / Arrange Your Face (Part 1/2)

Wednesday 19 February – Tuesday 25 February
Fourth Estate: Pages 272–305
Picador: Pages 251–282
First Line: The knocking at the gate comes after midnight.
Last Line: …because in the end we all come home to God.

Week 9: Arrange Your Face (Part 2/2)

Wednesday 26 February – Tuesday 4 March
Fourth Estate: Pages 305–337
Picador: Pages 282–311
First Line: Lent saps the spirits, as of course it is designed to do.
Last Line: ‘I’ll put it on the account.’

Week 10: ‘Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?’ (Part 1/2)

Wednesday 5 March – Tuesday 11 March
Fourth Estate: Pages 338–384
Picador: Pages 312–354
First Line: Time now to consider the compacts that hold the world together…
Last Line: This girl, you know, she claims she can raise the dead.

Week 11: ‘‘Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?” (Part 2/2) / Early Mass

Wednesday 12 March – Tuesday 18 March
Fourth Estate: Pages 385–416
Picador: Pages 354–385
First Line: At John Petyt’s funeral…
Last Line: And in that hat there is a feather.

Week 12: Anna Regina (Part 1/2)

Wednesday 19 March – Tuesday 25 March
Fourth Estate: Pages 419–462
Picador: Pages 389–428
First Line: The two children sit on a bench in the hall of Austin Friars.
Last Line: …Frith is waiting, placid, for his journey to resume.

Week 13: Anna Regina (Part 2/2)

Wednesday 26 March – Tuesday 1 April
Fourth Estate: Pages 462–483
Picador: Pages 428–448
First Line: Four days.
Last Line: …she puts her foot into the boat.

Week 14: Devil’s Spit / A Painter’s Eye

Wednesday 2 April – Tuesday 8 April
Fourth Estate: Pages 484–527
Picador: Pages 449–489
First Line: It is magnificent.
Last Line: Gregory says, ‘Did you not know?’

Week 15: Supremacy

Wednesday 9 April – Tuesday 15 April
Fourth Estate: Pages 531–579
Picador: Pages 493–537
First Line: In the convivial days between Christmas and New Year…
Last Line: …puffing out smoke and clattering their mechanical wings.

Week 16: The Map of Christendom (Part 1/2)

Wednesday 16 April – Tuesday 22 April
Fourth Estate: Pages 580–620
Picador: Pages 538–575
First Line: ‘Do you want Audley’s post?’
Last Line: …take your sword in your hand.

Week 17: The Map of Christendom (Part 2/2) / To Wolf Hall

Wednesday 23 April – Tuesday 29 April
Fourth Estate: Pages 620–650
Picador: Pages 575–604
First Line: The Duke of Norfolk comes to visit him…
Last Line: Wolf Hall.

Bring Up the Bodies

Week 18: Falcons

Wednesday 30 April – Tuesday 6 May
Fourth Estate: Pages 1–35
Picador: Pages 3–30
First Line: His children are falling from the sky.
Last Line: …looking out into England.

Week 19: Crows (Part 1/2)

Wednesday 7 May – Tuesday 13 May
Fourth Estate: Pages 36–75
Picador: Pages 31–62
First Line: Stephen Gardiner! Coming in as he’s going out…
Last Line: ‘If she should die within the year, I wonder what world would be then?’

Week 20: Crows (Part 2/2)

Wednesday 14 May – Tuesday 20 May
Fourth Estate: Pages 75–119
Picador: Pages 62–100
First Line: But look: we have sat here too long!
Last Line: …poisoned, and with his throat cut.

Week 21: Angels

Wednesday 21 May – Tuesday 27 May
Fourth Estate: Pages 120–183
Picador: Pages 101–153
First Line: Christmas morning:
Last Line: ‘Alors … Perhaps just your initials.’

Week 22: The Black Book (Part 1/3)

Wednesday 28 May – Tuesday 3 June
Fourth Estate: Pages 184–223
Picador: Pages 157–187
First Line: When he hears the shout of ‘Fire!’
Last Line: But her hands and feet are cold…

Week 23: The Black Book (Part 2/3)

Wednesday 4 June – Tuesday 10 June
Fourth Estate: Pages 223–255
Picador: Pages 187–214
First Line: So here’s the Duke of Norfolk…
Last Line: One day he will give in and invite it to stand by the hearth.

Week 24: The Black Book (Part 3/3)

Wednesday 11 June – Tuesday 17 June
Fourth Estate: Pages 255–287
Picador: Pages 214–241
First Line: William Fitzwilliam comes to the Rolls House…
Last Line: …if I stopped to think how I was doing it I couldn’t do it at all.

Week 25: Master of Phantoms (Part 1/5)

Wednesday 18 June – Tuesday 24 June
Fourth Estate: Pages 288–323
Picador: Pages 242–271
First Line: ‘Come and it with me a while.’
Last Line: And lock it in your strongbox.

Week 26: Master of Phantoms (Part 2/5)

Wednesday 25 June – Tuesday 1 July
Fourth Estate: Pages 323–361
Picador: Pages 271–301
First Line: Mark at Stepney.
Last Line: We shall have no trouble with her now.

Week 27: Master of Phantoms (Part 3/5)

Wednesday 2 July – Tuesday 8 July
Fourth Estate: Pages 361–406
Picador: Pages 302–339
First Line: He has asked the king to keep to his privy chamber,
Last Line: …and picked their own bones clean.

Week 28: Master of Phantoms (Part 4/5)

Wednesday 9 July – Tuesday 15 July
Pages 406 – 441 (36 pages)
Fourth Estate: Pages 406–441
Picador: Pages 340–369
First Line: May is blossoming…
Last Line: If ever a man came close to beheading himself, Thomas More was that man.

Week 29: Master of Phantoms (Part 5/5) / Spoils

Wednesday 16 July – Tuesday 22 July
Fourth Estate: Pages 441–482
Picador: Pages 369–404
First Line: The queen wears scarlet and black…
Last Line: Here is one.

The Mirror and the Light

Week 30: Wreckage (I)

Wednesday 23 July – Tuesday 29 July
Fourth Estate: Pages 3–25
Picador: Pages 3–21
First line: Once the queen’s head is severed, he walks away.
Last line: It is 20 May 1536.

Week 31: Salvage (Part 1/3)

Wednesday 30 July – Tuesday 5 August
Fourth Estate: Pages 27–77
Picador: Pages 22–64
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 2/3)

Wednesday 6 August – Tuesday 12 August
Fourth Estate: Pages 77–116
Picador: Pages 64–98
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 3/3)

Wednesday 13 August – Tuesday 19 August
Fourth Estate: Pages 116–165
Picador: Pages 98–140
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 1/2)

Wednesday 20 August – Tuesday 26 August
Fourth Estate: Pages 167–209
Picador: Pages 141–177
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 2/2)

Wednesday 27 August – Tuesday 2 September
Fourth Estate: Pages 209–251
Picador: Pages 177–213
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

Wednesday 3 September – Tuesday 9 September
Fourth Estate: Pages 255–277
Picador: Pages 217–236
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

Wednesday 10 September – Tuesday 16 September
Fourth Estate: Pages 279–320
Picador: Pages 237–273
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 1/2)

Wednesday 17 September – Tuesday 23 September
Fourth Estate: Pages 321–355
Picador: Pages 274–303
First line: Aske: he is a petty gentleman…
Last line: Sexton says, ‘I could smell him from here.’

Week 39: Vile Blood (Part 2/2)

Wednesday 24 September – Tuesday 30 September
Fourth Estate: Pages 356–395
Picador: Pages 303–337
First line: Bess Darrell is a flitting presence by candlelight, a wraith.
Last line: Try and keep cheerful.

Week 40: The Bleach Fields

Wednesday 1 October – Tuesday 7 October
Fourth Estate: Pages 399–435
Picador: Pages 341–373
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 1/2)

Wednesday 8 October – Tuesday 14 October
Fourth Estate: Pages 437–477
Picador: Pages 374–409
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 2/2) / Broken on the Body

Wednesday 15 October – Tuesday 21 October
Fourth Estate: Pages 478–520
Picador: Pages 409–446
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

Wednesday 22 October – Tuesday 28 October
Fourth Estate: Pages 523–562
Picador: Pages 449–483
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 1/2)

Wednesday 29 October – Tuesday 4 November
Fourth Estate: Pages 563–598
Picador: Pages 484–514
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 2/2) / Inheritance

Wednesday 5 November – Tuesday 11 November
Fourth Estate: Pages 599–625
Picador: Pages 514–537
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 1/2)

Wednesday 12 November – Tuesday 18 November
Fourth Estate: Pages 629–651
Picador: Pages 541–560
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 2/2)

Wednesday 19 November – Tuesday 25 November
Fourth Estate: Pages 651–682
Picador: Pages 560–586
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

Wednesday 26 November – Tuesday 2 December
Fourth Estate: Pages 683–718
Picador: Pages 587–617
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 1/2)

Wednesday 3 December – Tuesday 9 December
Fourth Estate: Pages 719–765
Picador: Pages 618–657
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 2/2)

Wednesday 10 December – Tuesday 16 December
Fourth Estate: Pages 765–806
Picador: Pages 657–693
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 1/2)

Wednesday 17 December – Tuesday 23 December
Fourth Estate: Pages 809–847
Picador: Pages 697–729
First line: Sunset, Christophe stands on the threshold.
Last line: As Wyatt writes, Lauda finem: praise the end.

Week 52: Mirror (Part 2/2) / Light

Wednesday 24 December – Tuesday 30 December
Fourth Estate: Pages 847–875
Picador: Pages 730–753
First line: Edmund Walsingham, the Lieutenant of the Tower, comes next day.
Last line: …tracking the light along the wall.