Lords and ladies, you’ll never guess what I saw the other day.
So sayeth the wiki:
Wolf Hall (2009) is a multi-award winning historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family seat of Wolfhall or Wulfhall in Wiltshire. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a fictionalized biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII of England, through the death of Sir Thomas More. The novel won both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.[1][2] In 2012, The Observer named it as one of “The 10 best historical novels”.[3]
Now of course, when I think of Thomas Cromwell, I can only think of James Frain, who played Cromwell in the Tudors, across from Henry VIII, as played by that crazy guy from the Woody Allen Movie with ScarJo:
Your grace
But then that makes me think of the time when he played this guy in True Blood, who was basically a raping vampire, the worst combination of things since seconds after the big bang:
Your neck
And now I’m hiding under my desk, forgetting what I was talking about.
Cromwell. Wolf Hall.
Right.
Apparently, the author portrays Cromwell not as being the power-hungry sycophant that he is so commonly known for, but rather as a pragmatic and well-rounded character. Although it seems like she started this project already with the mind-set that she was going to paint him in a softer light. The truth is probably somewhere in between, as often seems the case.
This does sound like a fascinating read, especially if you like old stories about kings and queens like I do. Maybe they should make it into a movie. I wonder who would play Henry VIII? Hmmmm….
Between The Lines 