Endnotes #11: Reading dangerously
A Place of Greater Safety slow read • Wolf Hall Weekend 2026
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Endnotes | Issue #11: Reading dangerously
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Hello all
In this month’s Endnotes, some thoughts on reading dangerously, a reminder of next month’s slow read of A Place of Greater Safety, an exciting announcement for fans of Wolf Hall, and a list of next months’s book groups hosted by readers and writers on Substack.
Reading dangerously
“Are monsters in real life or just in stories?”
We bought Zack some new books. Greek legends, folk tales and short stories from around the world. I read to him about Theseus, who unwinds Ariadne’s thread into the centre of the labyrinth and kills the Minotaur.
Now he knows of mazes, willow and bamboo. We seek them out in England’s cold damp air, and he enters under the enchantment, hand holding his invisible thread.
With stories, the questions multiply: why did Theseus leave Ariadne behind? Why did his father, grieving, throw himself into the sea? What is tribute and revenge? What is death?
He asks me what is story and what is real. I do my best to answer, but feel ill-prepared for the task. There are no minotaurs in mazes, but men are monsters nonetheless. Some things he asks make me want to lie, and say all that is sad and scares is story. Real life is a place of greater safety.
Gregory Cromwell in Wolf Hall: “Some of these things are true and some of them lies. But they are all good stories.”
When the book is read, Zack potters off to play his games. Imagination is that invisible thread that ties together fact and fiction; the real and pretend. What good are stories that have no truth? What worth has life without the artful lie?
I read him ‘The Girl Who Owned a Bear’ by L. Frank Baum, the architect of Oz and the wizard behind the screen. In this short story, a girl is given a book of beasts. She turns each page, and animals leap into her room. A bear stands before her and threatens to eat her up.
You can’t, she says, for I own you. My name is written in the book, and the book belongs to me.
Zack asks, Is this real or just a story? We turn together to the beginning of his book, and I write on the dotted line: This book belongs to Zack. You own it now, and every word is yours. Some of these things are true, and some of them are lies. But they are all good stories, and for that, they cannot hurt you.
It feels true and not true, which may be the best I can do: a man of forty and a boy of four, equally but differently perplexed by the nature of things.
Next week, we begin a slow read of Hilary Mantel’s novel on the French Revolution: A Place of Greater Safety. It is fiction, but it is true. Not only did these things happen, in one shape or another, but the words on the page conspire to make real things happen in your head, and in your gut.
You are transported and consigned to a place that is not safe. Alive within the story, you love life all the more in terror of its terminus; its inevitable interruption. You own the book, you close the book, but Danton, Camille and Robespierre remain: bears in the room, bleeding from life, ready to eat you.
I cannot explain this to Zack, although his big eyes and his hand gripping mine make me suspect he already knows. Life expands and contracts between us, for perhaps there is not so much wisdom in experience. Just better words to describe what life and story will do.
He has begun to read dangerously, unspooling his imagination into the unsafe stories of our world. I am frightened for him; I am joyous. And I feel dangerously alive.
Read A Place of Greater Safety with us
If you fancy some dangerous reading this year, we start A Place of Greater Safety next Monday, 5 May 2025. The slow read runs for 20 weeks with notes and discussion published every Monday. The reading schedule, cast of characters and further resources can be found here.
To sign up, (1) subscribe to Footnotes and Tangents and (2) turn on notifications for “2025 A Place of Greater Safety” in your subscription settings.
Wolf Hall Weekend
Last year, I attended the inaugural Wolf Hall Weekend at Cadhay House in Devon. A magnificent celebration of Hilary Mantel’s writing and the Cromwell trilogy.
I am delighted to report that the
team are putting on another event in 2026. Wolf Hall Weekend by the Tower takes place on 6 & 7 June 2026 at All Hallows-by-the-Tower, London.There will be expert panels and keynote talks from historians Tracy Borman and Diarmaid MacCulloch, and the actor Ben Miles, who narrates the audiobooks and performed as Cromwell in the RSC stage adaptations.
On Saturday evening, there will be an exclusive performance of The Mirror and the Light by the Tower Theatre Company. Expect great food, guided walks, and pastime with good company throughout the weekend.
and I will be there, and it would be lovely if some of you can make it as well. There is limited capacity, so mark your diary and grab a ticket now.May Book Groups
As usual, in our library of further reading resources, you can find the Substack Book Group Directory. I update this list monthly. If you run a book group or book club on Substack, get in touch so I can add yours to the list.
And here is a list of some of the books people will be reading in May:
- : My Documents by Kevin Nguyen
The Austen Connection Read-Along with
: Pride and Prejudice by Jane AustenThe Big Read with
: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain / The Infernal Machine by Steven JohnsonThe Book Club for Busy Readers with
: Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola DavisBreccia with
: Weathering Book by Ruth Allen (Starts 20 March, runs for 9 weeks)The Burning Archive Slow Read with
: The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk (Feb - Sep)Cambridge Ladies' Dining Society: The 20th Century Book Club with
: The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sheriff (Apr-May)- : Chasing Fog by Laura Pashby (all 2025)
Close Reads HQ with
, , : The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni / Piranesi by Susanna ClarkeMay: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Closely Reading with
: Yonnondio by Tillie Olsen/ Middlemarch by George Eliot
- : Plato’s Republic
Creative, Inspired, Happy: Read Like a Writer Book Club with
: Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday- : Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (all 2025)
Deep Reads Book Club with
: Homer’s The Iliad (Jan - June)Dostoevsky book club «Theta-Delta» with
: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (all 2025)Elizabeth Goudge Bookclub with
: The Scent of Water by Elizabeth GoudgeEmily’s Walking Book Club with
: Whereabouts by Jhumpa LahiriFour Thousand Weeks with
: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman (Feb-TBD)FrizzLit with
: A Farewell to Arms and Short Stories by Ernest HemingwayGenius & Ink with
: Dante’s The Divine Comedy (all 2025)The Gentle Book Club with
: Move, Rest, Recover by Erin TaylorGuerilla Readers with
: Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America by Barbara McQuadeInterpreting the Great Artificer: Close readings of the works of James Joyce with
: Dubliners by James JoyceThe Kindred Spirits Bookclub with
: Anne of Windy Poplars by Lucy Maud Montgomery- : Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber (continued)
More Magic with
: Green Teeth by Molly O'Neill- : Chaucer Reading Challenge (continued) & Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Read the Classics with
: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (all 2025) / The Counterfeiters by André Gide- & : War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (all 2025) / Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Reading Revisited with
& : Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa CatherReceipt from the Bookshop with
: The Names by Florence Knapp- : The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
The Sixty-Minute Book Club with
: The Apple Tree by Daphne Du MaurierSleuth Hero Alien with
: Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord- : Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (Mar-May)
To All My Darlings with
: Miss MacIntosh, My Darling by Marguerite Young (all 2025)- : Out of Sheer Rage by Geoff Dyer
Thank you
And that’s all from me. Many thanks for subscribing to Footnotes and Tangents and joining our slow reads. And I’ll be back next month with more Endnotes.
Simon
So, if I've got this right, for me, the next few months will be:
* Mondays - A Place of Greater Safety
* Tuesdays - War and Peace
* Wednesdays - Wolf Crawl
* Thursdays - day off
* Fridays - The Old Curiosity Shop
plus Anna Karenina at the end of the month. I think that seems doable.
Have you discovered Alex Andreou's wonderful Podyssey podcast? He focuses on a character or feature of Greek myth in each episode, tells the story (and he's a *great* storyteller) and then unpacks it with guests. Not a kid-friendly podcast, but fascinating. Would highly recommend.
Really looking forward to the APOGS slow read. With typical lack of willpower, I've already started it. Will try to hold off on too much romping ahead!