Bring Up the Bodies (2012 Man Booker Prize & Costa Book Award Winner)

Continuing what began in the Man Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel returns us to the court of Henry VIII, to witness the irresistible rise of Thomas Cromwell as he contrives the destruction of Anne Boleyn.

By 1535 Thomas Cromwell is far from his humble origins. Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes have risen with those of Anne Boleyn, for whose sake Henry created his own church. But now England is dangerously isolated, and Anne has failed to give the king an heir. Cromwell watches Henry fall in love with plain Jane Seymour, an attachment that risks the safety of the nation. Negotiating the politics of the court, Cromwell must find a solution that will satisfy Henry and secure his own career. But neither minister nor king will emerge unscathed from the bloody theatre of Anne's final days.

An astounding literary accomplishment, Bring Up the Bodies is the story of this most terrifying moment of history, by one of our greatest novelists and the only author to have won two Bookers with consecutive novels.