Wolf Crawl #11: Gambling is not a vice

That night his fortunes had been in equipoise. In the room behind him, as he looked out over the harbour lights, he heard a woman’s throaty laughter, her soft ‘alhamdu lillah’ as she shook the ivory dice in her hand. He heard her spill them, heard them rattle and come to rest: ‘What is it?’
East is high. West is low. Gambling is not a vice, if you can afford to do it.
‘It is three and three.’
Is that low? You must say it is. Fate has not given him a shove, more of a gentle tap. ‘I shall go home.’

Last Week | Home Page | Reading Schedule
Further Resources: Hilary Mantel | Wolf Hall

Welcome to week 11 of 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 & 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

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, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, 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 second half of Part Four. Chapter II. ‘Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?’ Spring, 1532, and the short Chapter III. Early Mass, November 1532.

In the UK Fourth Estate edition, this section runs from pages 385–416. In the US Picador edition, it runs from pages 351–385. It begins, “At John Petyt’s funeral…” It ends, “And in that hat there is a feather.”

This summary is followed by a few footnotes of interest.

This week is the consummation of all we have worked for. We have new titles and new offices. There is music and dancing. We go to Calais with a fair wind, in search of a man with a memory machine. In the archives, Bea relives her first encounter with Henry and Cromwell in ink. In the haunting of Wolf Hall, we get up from our bed of phantoms and walk ourselves back into our past.

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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