More Great Reads for Fans of Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall is everywhere lately, with adaptations of Hillary Mantel's prize-winning novels about Thomas Cromwell (Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies) on both PBS and Broadway. The third novel in the trilogy (reportedly to be titled The Mirror and the Light) has not yet been published, but fans of these addictive tales of court intrigue set during the reign of the Tudors have an abundance of reading options to keep them occupied.

Readers who enjoy Wolf Hall may also enjoy The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, author of several novels of historical fiction about the British monarchy. The Other Boleyn Girl focuses on the rivalry of sisters Anne and Mary Boleyn for the heart of Henry VIII. You could also try Ford Madox Ford's The Fifth Queen and Robin Maxwell's The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn.

Novelist C.J. Sansom has written a series of mystery novels about a hunchbacked lawyer named Matthew Shardlake. In Dissolution, the first book in the series, the year is 1537 and England is torn between king and church. Shardlake is summoned by Thomas Cromwell to investigate the murder of a royal commissioner.

Prefer to read biography? Alison Weir (who also writes historical fiction) covers the whole saga of Henry's wives in the biography The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Antonia Fraser has also covered the subject in The Wives of Henry VIII. For a broader perspective on the entire dynasty, try Peter Ackryod's Tudors.


Lastly, if it's Mantel's vision of Cromwell's machinations that fascinates you most, perhaps you should brush up on Machiavelli's notorious 16th-century landmark of political science, The Prince.

For more, search our catalog for the Tudors.