‘Master Cromwell, you think because you are a councillor you can negotiate with heretics, behind the king’s back. You are wrong. I know about your letters that come and go to Stephen Vaughan, I know he has met with Tyndale.’
‘Are you threatening me? I’m just interested.’
‘Yes,’ More says sadly. ‘Yes, that is precisely what I am doing.’
He sees that the balance of power has shifted between them: not as officers of state, but as men.
Last Week | Home Page | Reading Schedule
Further Resources: Hilary Mantel | Wolf Hall
Welcome to week 10 of Wolf Crawl. I am your guide,
, and this is a year-long slow read of Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy: Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror & the Light.Each week, I dive into the detail with summaries, background, footnotes and tangents to enrich your reading. I am joined on this journey by
, 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, The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell, and Hilary Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety.
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 first half of Part Four. Chapter II. ‘Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?’ Spring, 1532.
In the UK Fourth Estate edition, this section runs from pages 338–384. In the US Picador edition, it runs from pages 321–354. It begins, ‘Time now to consider the compacts that hold the world together…’ It ends, ‘This girl, you know, she claims she can raise the dead.’
This summary is followed by a few footnotes of interest.
This week, we explore the world made by old men in counting houses, balancing the books, and baking the perfect spiced wafers. We run with Jezebel and the wild dogs, divide and rule, and bag ourselves two big fish from the Thames. In the archives with Bea Stitches, Bea finds poetry in Thomas Avery’s account books, and in the haunting of Wolf Hall, we consider the memory burned on the body.
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.
To get these posts in your inbox or the Substack app, subscribe to Footnotes and Tangents and turn on notifications for ‘2025 Wolf Crawl’ in your subscription settings.
