
Winners of the Man Booker Prize in 2009 & 2012. This elegantly presented double-hardback slipcased set is available for a limited time only. The perfect gift for any book lover. ' Wolf Hall' & ' Bring Up the Bodies' both winners of The Man Booker Prize in 2009 & 2012 respectively are the first two instalments in Hilary Mantel's Tudor trilogy. They have gathered readers & praise in equal & enormous measure. They have been credited with elevating historical fiction to new heights & animating a period of history many thought too well known to be made fresh. Through the eyes & ears of Thomas Cromwell the books' narrative prism we are shown Tudor England the court of King Henry VIII. Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith a political genius a briber a charmer a bully a man with a delicate & deadly expertise in manipulating people & events. In ' Wolf Hall' we witness Cromwell's rise beginning as clerk to Cardinal Wolsey Henry's chief advisor charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. He is soon to become his successor. By 1535 when the action of ' Bring Up the Bodies' begins Cromwell is Chief Minister to Henry his fortunes having risen with those of Anne Boleyn Henry's second wife. Anne's days though are marked. Cromwell watches as the king falls in love with silent plain Jane Seymour sensing what Henry's affection will mean for his queen for England & for himself.