Wolf Hall

A Novel

By: Hilary Mantel

Narrated by: Ben Miles

Length: 25 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

This program is read by Ben Miles, who played Thomas Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.

Winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction

A New York Times best seller

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of 20 years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall is "a darkly brilliant reimagining of life under Henry VIII.... Magnificent." (The Boston Globe)

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2009 Hilary Mantel (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Its A Winner!

Wonderful writing, but the narration is a bit unusual. "He" is "Cromwell" most of the time. Once you acclimate, you are right in the room with him.
Ben Miles' performance is brilliant.

Ben Miles was perfection

This was a fascinating story made even better by narrator Ben Miles. More a performance than a narration. I couldn't wait to turn it on every spare minute I had. Looking forward to starting the next book in the series.

magnificent

a wordsmith in her prime, Ms Mantel has placed her subject in the whole realm of life: characters finely drawn, evolving, relating to one another and changing circumstance; clothing described so one can 'feel' the material; food preparation, fragrant spices, crisping of fragile wafers, preparation of eels; weather an ever present reality, skittering leaves, building thunderheads, weak sun shafts. the book is a monumental, sensuously presented landscape of history, conflict, church and state.

Fantastic story

This was a little tedious and confusing at first. I had to start 3 times to figure out the time sequencing. After the first 2 chapters it got easier to follow the story. The narration was superb! It really made listening more entertaining. I will probably read the sequel because of the wonderful narration and now able to follow the author’s time layout. You cannot read this book to doze off at bedtime. The storyline
can be confusing if you don’t know the true history and the characters.

Good narrator but difficult to follow the plot.

I enjoy Tudor history and loved the show on PBS, so I was really looking forward to this novel. However, I found the writing style difficult to follow. I’m sure if I was reading this novel I would have stopped. The narrator does an excellent job so I did finish the audio, but I am not sure I’ll continue on with this series.

So much more fun than I was anticipating!

This book feels much shorter than 600 pages. Mantel writes such vibrant characters with such engaging dialogue, I could spend forever reading this book. I don't usually care about stories about the British royalty and was reluctant to pick this book up, but was surprised by the vivid world the novel depicts of people trying to take care of families and create a better world. The tenderness of the relationships between Cromwell and the others in this book comes out through all his conversations and interactions and left me enjoying a relationship with a character I enjoyed spending time with immensely.

Difficult to follow at times but worth it

When you’re driving or running, you might miss the mention of a date and therefore not catch that everything is now occurring BEFORE the previous chapter. You may not remember the relationships between certain characters, especially if they’ve been absent from the story for awhile. So be prepared to hit the backwards button now and then. I’d say this is a book to be read except you’d miss out the performance of a lifetime by this narrator! So hang in there, it’s worth the effort.

Excellent book

I first was introduced to the series by BBC mini series, but always wanted to read the books. I have heard different things about the different narrators depending on edition but Ben Miles does an wonderful job.

Absolutely superb

The narration is wonderful, done by the actor who played Cromwell in London and on Broadway, and I love the writing as well. Thoroughly enjoyable listen!

Thoroughly fascinating work

Author an incredibly gifted and skilled writer whose graceful style takes the reader back to Tudor time.