Booker's best?

I must admit I hadn’t heard of Hilary Mantel before, but I’m quite impressed with “Wolf Hall” and might well read some of her other novels too. It’s basically a political novel and as such not an easy read, but her writing is fantastic and she manages to give a 16th century feel to it all, without heaping too much historical detail onto it. Quite often historical novelists tend to tell you too much of what they know about a period and that can make for a cumbersome reading. Mantel doesn’t do that at all; she conveys a feeling of time by the earthy language she uses and by the behaviour and psychology of her characters. And what characters these are: Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell, Anne and Mary Boleyn, Thomas More and Cardinal Wolsey! I wouldn’t have expected this particular bunch of people to be quite so enjoyable and entertaining. So give it a go and read it, even if you don’t like historical novels normally – maybe especially then.