He has “the same small quick eyes, the same thickset imperturbable body the same schedules”. We first encounter the protagonist in his 50th year. Only the occasional fleeting reference to a character or event that will have profound consequences for him later in the narrative leaves us with what Cromwell himself describes as “a chilly trickle of dismay, like water creeping into a cellar”. The same immediacy – and intimacy – of Mantel’s extraordinary writing style is apparent from the start, helping us to set aside our knowledge of the horrors to come and live each day, each hour, with Thomas Cromwell as if we too have no idea what lies ahead. Within the first few paragraphs, the eight years of waiting for this book to appear fade away and the reader is immediately transported back into the world of Henry VIII’s right-hand man.Ĭan any book live up to such hype? In the case of The Mirror & the Light, the answer is an emphatic yes. It begins exactly where the second volume left off: with Anne Boleyn’s bloodied remains on the scaffold at the Tower of London. The third book in the trilogy covers the last four years of Thomas Cromwell’s life, from 1536–40. Diehard fans had an agonising 10 more months to wait, but at least the end was in sight at last.Ĭan any book live up to such hype? In the case of The Mirror & the Light, the answer is an emphatic yes.

Not long afterwards, Mantel’s publishers, Fourth Estate, confirmed March 2020 as the publication date. Alongside the unmistakable Tudor rose design were the words, “So now get up”, recognisable to Wolf Hall aficionados the world over as the first line of the trilogy. Then in May last year, a huge billboard went up in London’s Leicester Square. Ever since the publication of the second book in the Wolf Hall trilogy, Bring Up the Bodies, in 2012, speculation has been rife as to when the final instalment would appear.

The mirror and the light series