Historical fiction book · Curated
Bring Up the Bodies
Hilary Mantel · historical fiction
Series: Thomas Cromwell trilogy
Thomas Cromwell, now Master Secretary, engineers the fall of Anne Boleyn as Henry VIII turns toward Jane Seymour. The middle novel of Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy is court politics at close range—cool, lethal, and intimate.
Why read it: Booker-winning sequel to Wolf Hall—the gold-standard Tudor biographical novel, sharpened to a single deadly year.
About this historical novel
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel is historical fiction set around 1535–1536 in the Early modern period with key settings including England, Henry VIII's court, Whitehall. Thomas Cromwell, now Master Secretary, engineers the fall of Anne Boleyn as Henry VIII turns toward Jane Seymour. The middle novel of Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy is court politics at close range—cool, lethal, and intimate.
On HisFic we tag it under 4. Biographical fiction and 1. Literary historical fiction so you can pair it with similar story types. Recurring themes include power, politics, ambition, and court. Booker-winning sequel to Wolf Hall—the gold-standard Tudor biographical novel, sharpened to a single deadly year.
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Plot summary
Thomas Cromwell, now Master Secretary, engineers the fall of Anne Boleyn as Henry VIII turns toward Jane Seymour. The middle novel of Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy is court politics at close range—cool, lethal, and intimate. Booker-winning sequel to Wolf Hall—the gold-standard Tudor biographical novel, sharpened to a single deadly year.
Subgenres
Eras
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More like this on HisFic
Curated titles that share era, story type, or themes.
- Wolf Hall · Hilary Mantel
Thomas Cromwell rises through Tudor England’s deadly court, told in close, modern-feeling prose.
- The House of Boleyn · Tracy Borman
Tudor historian Tracy Borman tells the Boleyn family's rise and fall from Hever Castle—Anne, Mary, Thomas, and the household watching Henry VIII's court close in.
- The Mirror & the Light · Hilary Mantel
The final act of Thomas Cromwell’s rise and ruin (Walter Scott Prize 2021).
- The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers · Margaret George
Henry VIII’s manuscript, glossed in the margins by his fool Will Somers, runs from a 1491 childhood through six wives, the break with Rome, and the dissolution of the monasteries, with Cromwell, Wolsey, More, and Anne Boleyn on the same pages as the king who signs their fates. Margaret George’s 1986 novel is early-modern biographical historical fiction of Tudor England told from the throne, not from the minister’s rooms.
- The Other Boleyn Girl · Philippa Gregory
Mary Boleyn’s perspective on the rise of Anne Boleyn and the dangerous theater of Henry VIII’s court.
- The Marriage Portrait · Maggie O'Farrell
Lucrezia de’ Medici is married at fifteen to the Duke of Ferrara, then isolated in a court where a duchess can be painted, praised, and quietly discarded. O’Farrell turns a famous rumor—that Lucrezia was murdered—into close, tense biographical historical fiction of Renaissance Italy.
Regions & places
Britain & Ireland
England · Henry VIII's court · Whitehall
Themes
- power
- politics
- ambition
- court
Tags
literary · series · award-winner