He approaches on the king’s left hand. Weston, who is young and lightly built, is showing signs of buckling at the knees. ‘Lean on me, sir,’ he advises. The king locks an arm around his neck, in a sort of wrestling hold. Bear-keeper’s a steady job. For a moment he thinks the king is crying.
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Welcome to Wolf Crawl. I am your guide, Simon Haisell, and this is a year-long slow read of Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy: Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror and the Light.
Each week, I dive into the details, with summaries, background, footnotes and tangents to enrich your reading. I am joined on this journey by Bea Stitches, who delves into the archive on our behalf, and Matt Brown, who makes maps to help us find our way through Cromwell’s world.
You can find the reading schedule and plot summaries for the full cast of characters on my website, Footnotes and Tangents. There, you can join other slow reads, including Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie and Pat Barker’s Regeneration.
I start each post with a summary of the week’s story, illustrated by a map created by Matt Brown. This week, we are reading the second half of Part Four. Chapter I. Arrange Your Face, 1531.
UK Fourth Estate edition, pp. 305–337
US Picador, pp. 282–311
US Henry Holt, pp. 250-276 (guide only, editions vary)
Ben Miles audiobook, 11:30:47–12:47:30
First Line: Lent saps the spirits, as of course it is designed to do.
Last Line: ‘I’ll put it on the account.’
This summary is followed by a few footnotes of interest.
This week we arrange our face with Erasmus, we light a bonfire of the vanities in Florence. We look to the heavens for a sign, while keeping watch for lions, giants and bears. In the archives with Bea Stitches, we track the augmentation of Anne and the diminishment of Thomas Bilney. In the haunting of Wolf Hall, we consider who we, Thomas Cromwell, really are. We end with my favourite quote of the week.
And then it is over to you. In the comments, let us know what caught your eye and ask the group any questions you may have. And if you’ve tumbled down a rabbit hole or taken your reading off on a tangent, please share where you have been and what you have found.
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