'Yes,' Rafe says, 'but you know Gregory's letters. And now no more for lack of time.'
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further resources: Hilary Mantel | Wolf Hall
Welcome to Week 52 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, 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 by Matt Brown. This week, we complete The Mirror and the Light and Wolf Crawl with the second part of Part Six. Chapter I. Mirror, June–July 1540 and Chapter II. Light, 28 July 1540.
In the UK Fourth Estate edition, this section runs from pages 847 to 875. In the US Picador edition, it runs from pages 730 to 753. It begins, “Edmund Walsingham, the Lieutenant of the Tower, comes next day.” It ends, “…tracking the light along the wall.”
This summary is followed by a few footnotes of interest. This week, our time runs out, and Christophe speaks the truth. The cardinal reappears, Cromwell imagines the king’s death and a world without himself. Wyatt’s poems lead us to the scaffold, where we leave behind a brave new world.
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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