Journal Entry 1 by jubby from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Friday, September 11, 2009

Back cover reads:

'Lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning,' says Thomas More, 'and when you come back that night he'll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks' tongues, and all the gaolers will owe him money.'

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disasters. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annual his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe oppose him. The quest for the petulant king's freedom destroys his advisor, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum and a deadlock.

Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a bully and a charmer, Cromwell has broken all the rules of a rigid society in his rise to power, and is prepared to break some more. Rising from the ashes of personal disaster - the loss of his young family and of Wolsey, his beloved patron - he picks his way deftly through a court where 'man is wolf to man'. Pitting himself against parliament, the political establishment and the papacy, he is prepared to reshape England to his own and Henry's desires.

From one of our finest living writers, Wolf Hall is that very rare thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion and suffering and courage.

Hilary Mantel is the author of eleven books, including A place of greater safety, Giving up the ghost and, most recently, Beyond black, which was shortlisted for the 2006 Orange Prize. 

Journal Entry 2 by jubby from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Friday, September 11, 2009

Going out as a bookring as part of Fleebo's 2009 Booker Challenge:
- goodthinkingmax
- tqd
- FreePages
- fleebo
- miss-jo
- Sujie
- livrecache
- jubby 

Journal Entry 3 by jubby at Bookring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Released 2 yrs ago (10/26/2009 UTC) at Bookring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases

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Passed onto Goodthinkingmax today. 

Journal Entry 4 by goodthinkingmax from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Friday, October 30, 2009

I have the winner in my hands..scored by default as tqd couldn't make lunch so we didn't have to squabble over it :-)

I will begin to read it immediately. 

Journal Entry 5 by tqd from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Woohoo! I seem to have jumped the queue here! I shall start reading this tonight so it won't get held up, as it is the winner (and I have been looking forward to it!). Thanks for passing it along, goodthinkingmax! 

Journal Entry 6 by tqd from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, December 30, 2009

A wonderfully dense, engrossing, marvellous read. It starts off with young Thomas Cromwell being kicked in the mud by his brute of a father. And Thomas Cromwell somehow grows up from that poor bedraggled boy into one of the most powerful men in Tudor England. It doesn't help that he's incredibly clever at politics. And languages. And people. And maths. And business.

He's some sort of poster boy for smart people everywhere, I reckon.

This book is written in such sparse language. Bare bones of descriptions on which to hang luscious dialogue and internal thoughts. But it does take some getting used to. For example, the use of 'he' pronoun all the time to refer to Thomas. Gives a sense of his importance to the book's story, but I kept on thinking 'the cat's father'?

What I liked best about this book was that it didn't feel as if modern psychology had been put to work on the historical characters, moulding them into people with modern ideas and feelings and thoughts so that we could understand them. You really get a feeling for Thomas being of a different age to ours with his strong attachment to those who treat him well, and the flipside of his holding a grudge for those who treat him poorly.

But he was very likeable, a great character on which to hang such a wonderful book.

I feel that I've failed to capture the book at all with my comments. I did love it, but I'm just not sure what to say about it but: Wow.

Thanks very much for making this available, jubby! I have FreePages' address already, and will get this one in the post asap. 

Journal Entry 7 by tqd at Balmain, New South Wales Australia on Sunday, January 10, 2010

Released 2 yrs ago (1/10/2010 UTC) at Balmain, New South Wales Australia

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In the post to freepages today.

Happy reading! 

Journal Entry 8 by FreePages from Canberra, Australian Capital Territory Australia on Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Journal Entry 9 by FreePages from Canberra, Australian Capital Territory Australia on Friday, March 05, 2010

Finally finished Wolf Hall last night!
It took me an age to finish this book! Part of it was me but I've heard of others having the same trouble.
The historical setting is one I feel familiar with but I was interested to hear it from Cromwell's view. Much of it was well written but for a dramatic part of history, I didn't get a sense of drama. Some of it was quite humourous but that was it, it seemed to move from conversation to conversation and that was it, fizzeling out at the end.
At the moment The Children's book has been my favourite from the 2009 short-list.

I'll check with Fleebo to see if she is ready for this one and one other and send it on next week.
 

Journal Entry 10 by FreePages at Canberra, Australian Capital Territory Australia on Monday, March 08, 2010

Released 2 yrs ago (3/8/2010 UTC) at Canberra, Australian Capital Territory Australia

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Placed in the post to Fleebo today with one other from the booker challenge.

Thanks for organising the challenge Fleebo. I get a chance to read a number of books that I might not read otherwise.

Thanks Jubby for contributing this one to the challenge, eventhough, I wasn't entirely positive about it I am really happy I got to read it.

I hope you enjoy it more then I did Fleebo
:-) 

Journal Entry 11 by Fleebo from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Received safely with tasty postcard, thank you! 

Journal Entry 12 by Fleebo from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Sunday, April 25, 2010

A most excellent good book, despite this being probably the most written-about portion of English history ever.
This is really solid writing, although I'm inclined to agree with the incessant use of "he" (meaning Cromwell) being a bit too much. Also, I found it odd that the book ended with the historical event that it chose. I would have been quite happy for it to continue at least until... argh, but I'd better not spoil it. That's the trouble with history, it never ties up all loose ends at once.
I would never have picked this as being by the author of "Beyond Black". I liked this SO much more. 

Journal Entry 13 by Fleebo from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Given to miss-jo. 

Journal Entry 14 by miss-jo from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, May 20, 2010

Received with thanks 

Journal Entry 15 by miss-jo at Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, June 30, 2010

I like well-researched, well-written historical novels and this certainly qualified. Conveniently, I read it just after studying the German and Swiss Reformations in church history, so it was even more interesting to me - and I caught a number of references I may not have otherwise.

One of my favourite winners.

I'll pm sujie 

Journal Entry 16 by Sujie at Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Thank, just arrived today. Another brick...I'm struggling with Tolz at the moment but see that so many of you really enjoyed "Wolf Hall" that I must give the winner a good try. 

Journal Entry 17 by Sujie at Kangaroo Valley, New South Wales Australia on Sunday, August 22, 2010

Well, DaveDELC did give it a good try and really enjoyed it, but I am having a hard time getting enthused about very long novels....I mostly end up rueing the dearth of editors in present day publishing. Going o/s for a holiday so PMing livrecache. 

Journal Entry 18 by livrecache at Hobart, Tasmania Australia on Sunday, August 29, 2010

Safely caught, and I am eagerly anticipating reading this book. Thanks for hosting the ring, jubby. 

Journal Entry 19 by jubby at Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Friday, January 06, 2012

Hello Wolf Hall and Livrecache. Is all well? Coming home soon?