The mirror & the light Mirror and the light Mantel, Hilary 1952- creator author. text Fiction. History. Historical fiction. Historical fiction. Political fiction. England-History-Cromwell. nyu 2020 2020 First U.S edition. monographic eng print xvii, 757 pages : genealogical tables ; 25 cm. ""If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?" England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith's son from Putney emerges from the spring's bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen before Jane dies giving birth to the male heir he most craves. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry's regime to the breaking point, Cromwell's robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him? With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man's vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion, and courage"-- adult Hilary Mantel. Sequel to Wolf hall (2009) and Bring up the bodies (2012). e-uk--- Earl of Essex Cromwell, Thomas 1485?-1540 Fiction VIII, King of England Henry 1491-1547 Fiction Earl of Essex Cromwell, Thomas 1485?-1540 Great Britain History Henry VIII, 1509-1547 Fiction Courts and courtiers Fiction Great Britain 1509-1547 fast PR6063.A438 M36 2020 823/.914 Wolf hall Mantel, Hilary, 1952- Bring up the bodies Mantel, Hilary, 1952- The mirror & the light Mantel, Hilary, 1952- New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2020. First edition. (DLC) 2019051190 (OCoLC)1129398380 Thomas Cromwell Trilogy ; 3 Mantel, Hilary 1952- 9780805096606 9781250622587 1250622581 0805096604 9780805096613 2019051189 pda,print DLC 191121 20250318222601.3 in00004160927 eng