The boys have not closed the shutters. He rises to do it. Henry says, 'Leave those, I want what light there is.' Beyond the glass gulls swing by, as if they have mistaken the towers of Westminster for a sea cliff.
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further resources: Hilary Mantel | Wolf Hall
Welcome to Week 50 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 delve into the details, providing 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, Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower and Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie.
I start each post with a summary of the week’s story, illustrated by a map by Matt Brown. This week, we are reading the second half of Part Five. Chapter III. Magnificence, January–June 1540.
In the UK Fourth Estate edition, this section runs from pages 765 to 806. In the US Picador edition, it runs from pages 657 to 693. It begins, “When the court moves to Westminster, they go by river” It ends, “The flint sparkles like sunlight on the sea.”
This summary is followed by a few footnotes of interest. This week, the king blows hot and cold, while we, Lord Cromwell, are the wound man. Norfolk is Pandar; death is your lackey. When all seems lost, we are raised to the peerage. It is miraculous, magnificent, until the day we lose our hat.
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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