Beneath Cornwall, beyond and beneath this whole realm of England, beneath the sodden marches of Wales and the rough territory of the Scots border, there is another landscape; there is a buried empire, where he fears his commissioners cannot reach.
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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, Pat Barker’s Regeneration, and The Inheritors by William Golding.
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 Part Six. Chapter I. Supremacy, 1534.
UK Fourth Estate edition, pp. 531–579
US Picador, pp. 493–537
US Henry Holt, pp. 435-474 (guide only, editions vary)
Ben Miles audiobook, 20:21:20–22:18:02
First Line: In the convivial days between Christmas and New Year…
Last Line: …puffing out smoke and clattering their mechanical wings.
This summary is followed by a few footnotes of interest.
This week, we are the puppet masters for a play where every man is Thomas. The King of Cockaigne goes hunting treasure, while the living take on the dead in a bid for supremacy. In the archives, Bea is haunted by the Valor Ecclesiasticus. In the haunting of Wolf Hall, we are all haunted by England’s uncounted dead.
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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