Read 'A Place of Greater Safety' in 2025

And three of Hilary Mantel's favourite historical novels

Dear reader,

I invite you to join us in 2025 for a slow read of A Place of Greater Safety, Hilary Mantel’s magnificent novel set during the French Revolution. A slow read is an extraordinary experience. We take our time, we notice more, and we create space to live within the story. It is mindful reading, and it is for everyone.

We start on 5 May 2025 and will spend 20 weeks in the belly of the beast. This post contains everything you need to know, as well as information about three other books we’re reading in 2025: The Siege of Krishnapur, Things Fall Apart, and The Blue Flower.

Here is the full line-up for 2025:

Each book group has a main page. To join a slow read, (1) subscribe to Footnotes and Tangents, and (2) turn on notifications for your chosen book. I have recorded a how-to video to help you, which you can find in the post below.

1. What is A Place of Greater Safety?

This is the story of the French Revolution from the perspective of three of its main protagonists, Camille Desmoulins, Georges Danton, and Maximilien Robespierre, three provincial lawyers who became revolutionaries in the capital. The old order is collapsing, and something new is coming into being. It will be the making of these men – and then, it will destroy them.

It is an accursed book. Writing it almost killed the author; reading it may cause something to break within you. You live and breathe the lives of its characters; and everyone dies in the end.

This book almost didn’t get published.

In her twenties, Hilary Mantel set out to write “the story of the revolution by some of the people who made it, rather than by the revolution’s enemies.” She researched and wrote the book between 1974-79 while suffering extreme pain and fatigue. Misdiagnosed with a psychiatric illness, she endured unnecessary treatment and major life-altering surgery. By the time it was diagnosed as endometriosis, Mantel had finished an enormous novel that no one wanted to publish.

She feared she had begun her career with ‘a gigantic mistake.’

Fast forward to 1992. Hilary Mantel was forty with four books out. A friend was writing a newspaper article on unfinished first novels. She asked Mantel whether she had one. “I could have lied,” she told The Paris Review, “but it was as if the devil jumped out of my mouth, and I said, Yes, I have!” After labouring long hours through one agonising summer of revisions, she finally published A Place of Greater Safety.

I suppose that book always was more important to me than anything else… It was me doing what I do. And I think, for better or worse, it’s me ­doing what only I could do.

2. Why read A Place of Greater Safety?

When Hilary Mantel died in September 2022, I knew there was only one book I wanted to re-read. I was grieving the death of an author who wrote words that made me feel, and no book makes me feel quite as much as A Place of Greater Safety. In her Author’s Note, she writes:

I have tried to write a novel that gives the reader scope to change opinions, change sympathies: a book that one can think and live inside.

We inhabit this book. Novelist Lucy Caldwell writes, “It captures the spirit of the Revolution – it makes you feel you are living through it.” That spirit is at first exhilarating and later terrifying, as our place of safety vanishes to nothing. As the historian Kate Williams says, “Paris bursts from the page” as ordinary lives become extraordinary in new and bewildering times.

A Place of Greater Safety is less well-known and less critically acclaimed than her Cromwell trilogy. But it is astonishing to think that this was her first book. The amount of research, the depth of the writing, and the scale of the undertaking will put fear into the hearts of any aspiring author.

And yet, it is inspiring! If words can do this: create a physiological response, make your heart race and your head pound. If words can make you look up from the page, to check whether you are really alone. And really safe. If words can do this to you, then, there is little doubt that we must read, and we must write.

Mantel said:

When I began work on the French Revolution, it seemed to me the most interesting thing that had ever happened in the history of the world, and it still does in many ways.

“May you live in interesting times” is the apocryphal ancient Chinese curse that is neither ancient nor Chinese. It is apparently as fictitious as the response a Chinese premier once gave to a question about the impact of the French Revolution: “Too early to tell.” We live in interesting times, and we live in a world re-made by events in Paris, 1789. This is a book about those times and our times.

The reader may ask how to tell fact from fiction. A rough guide: anything that seems particulary unlikely is probably true.

3. How does the slow read work?

2025 will be my third year running slow reads of great books. Here is what I do:

I have divided A Place of Greater Safety into a 20-week reading schedule, starting 5 May and finishing 22 September. Every Monday, I will send out a discussion post to accompany that week’s reading. This post will include my reflections combined with resources and plenty of space in the comments for further discussion.

You will be able to find the reading schedule, weekly posts and further resources on the main page for this slow read:

The rest is up to you. This is your slow read, and you should make it your own. Some are inspired to do their own research and write their own posts, others record their thoughts, meet up online or offline, or get creative by illustrating or even knitting their way through the slow read journey. Many or most come along just for the book and the discussion. There is no right way to read a book.

4. How much reading is there each week?

Dividing up A Place of Greater Safety has been tricky. Each week’s reading is around 40 pages. However, Hilary Mantel wrote some long chapters. The longest week is 60 pages, and the shortest is only 25 pages long.

5. Can I read at my own pace?

Of course! Find your rhythm with the readalong. There is an unexpected and enriching pleasure in a slow read. But you may need to swallow the book whole, or life may get in the way, and you find yourself catching up or taking a more scenic route to the finish line.

The reading schedule gives me time to research the reading and write my posts. But don’t let it cramp your style. We’re not at school. This is not homework. And there’s no right or wrong way to read a book.

Find your pace. Take advantage of as little or as much of the discussion and resources. The most important thing is that you enjoy your time with this book.

6. How do I join?

It’s a simple two-step process. (1) Subscribe to Footnotes and Tangents, and (2) turn on notifications for “2025 A Place of Greater Safety”. Here’s a video to walk you through it:

7. Is it free?

Yes! These posts are free and anyone can join in with the discussion. However, writing Footnotes and Tangents is also my full-time job, and it depends on paid subscriptions to keep it on the road. So, if you can afford to, I encourage you to upgrade to paid to support the slow reads and my writing.

A paid subscription is £3.50/month or £35/year. My prices are going up to £5/month or £50/year on 1 January 2025, but the rise won’t affect existing subscribers, so upgrade before the new year for the best deal.

Paid subscribers enjoy:

• Full access to all my book guides, including Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace and three Cromwell books by Hilary Mantel.

• Wolf Crawl 2025. Read Hilary Mantel’s trilogy: Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror and the Light over 52 weeks.

• War and Peace 2025. Read Leo Tolstoy’s classic, a chapter a day with weekly posts and daily discussion.

• Chat. A monthly ‘office hours’ chat thread to catch up, share our current reading and plan future slow reads. Paying subscribers can only start their own chat threads at any time.

Paid subscribers also help fund complimentary upgrades for engaged readers with low or no income. If that’s you, get in touch so I can support your reading!

8. What are the other slow reads in 2025?

A Place of Greater Safety is one of my favourite historical novels. To accompany it, I have chosen three books recommended by Hilary Mantel. For me, this will be an adventure. I have read each book only once and I have far more questions than answers. Whether you have read them before, or are coming to them for the first time, I would be delighted if you joined me for the journey.

The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell

Mantel writes:

An idiosyncratic masterpiece, wise and richly comic, set in India in 1857 in a besieged town garrisoned by the British. Original and endlessly entertaining, it repays repeated readings.

We will read this book over nine weeks, starting 6 January 2025.

• More on The Siege of Krishnapur.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Mantel writes:

A classic of African writing and a book of world stature, Chinua Achebe’s novel is set in a Nigerian village in the 1890s, where traditional society and the individual’s role falters in the face of modern and western influence. It is a gripping human story, universal in its appeal.

We will read this book over five weeks, starting 29 September 2025.

• More on Things Fall Apart.

The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald

Mantel cites Fitzgerald and her final book as an influence on her approach to historical fiction. It tells episodes from the early life of Friedrich von Hardenberg, a foundational figure in German Romanticism.

We will read this book over seven weeks, starting 3 November 2025.

• More on The Blue Flower.

I will also repeat this year’s enormously successful slow reads for paying subscribers:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

361 chapters starting on 1 January, a chapter a day. Weekly discussion posts and daily chat threads, with character and chapter summaries, so you will never feel lost. There will be a post dedicated to this readalong in November. You can read the intro to this year’s readalong here.

Wolf Crawl: Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell Trilogy

Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror and the Light, read over 52 weeks with weekly discussion posts full of resources and reflections on the text. It was a great pleasure and a labour of love to create this book guide and slow read in 2024. I will revise and send out the posts to new readers in 2025. I’ll post more about this next month. You can read this year’s intro here.

9. Any questions?

If you’ve got a question I haven’t answered here, don’t hesitate to leave a comment, hit reply, or send me a message on Substack. And if you know someone who might love one or more of these slow reads, please share this post. Thank you!

10. Substack Book Directory

Every month, I update a list of book groups with active Substack newsletters. The list currently has 37 groups and includes fiction and nonfiction, classics and contemporary novels, poetry, plays and philosophy. Do take a look!

And that’s all from me. Have a great month, and I’ll be back at the end of October with an introduction to the 2025 slow read of the Cromwell books. See you then!