But Rylance, with his big brown eyes and questioning eyebrows, melancholy smile, gentle voice, and slight frame, is probably not much like the real Thomas Cromwell. In the award-winning 2015 British television adaptation of Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, the marvellous actor Mark Rylance brilliantly brings Thomas Cromwell to life, making the viewer feel huge empathy for him. Some critics have asked whether the Wolf Hall Series, and The Mirror and the Light in particular, present a revision of the accepted view of Thomas Cromwell, or a revisionist history, with “Cromwell” being the main protagonist.Īs a reader pointed out in my review of the novels about Eliza Lynch, the wife of the 19 th century President of Paraguay, Francisco Solano López, the established views of important historical figures are often the result of their portrayal in entertainment media, fiction, and in “noisy and powerful propaganda”, with the most juicy and sensational portrayals being the most pervasive. A revisionist version of Cromwell?Ī significant aspect of the novel is the positive or negative positioning of the characters, with some being protagonists, and other antagonists. I felt the chilling sadness that grips you when you hear about the death of someone you know, because that is what happens after a month of being inside the head of one character in this book – you feel that you know them. In the end I forced myself and I have to admit that it could not have been more movingly or poignantly portrayed. I did not want to read about how he is put on trial and how he is betrayed, and particularly, how he dies. The real Thomas Cromwell was born around 1485 in Putney, England, and died on 28 July 1540, at the age of about 55, on Tower Hill, London, by beheading.

So, as you read the final chapters of the book, you know that “Cromwell” will die before the last page. As with all historical novels based on real people, the reader knows how Thomas Cromwell died, and also how the queens and consorts of Henry the Eight died, and other famous people of the age who feature in the novel, like Sir Thomas More. He feels for an opening, blinded, looking for a door: tracking the light along the wall.”Īnother intriguing aspect of the novel is the death of the main character. “He has vanished he is the slippery stones underfoot, he is the last faint ripple in the wake of himself.

The mirror & the light hilary mantel