Staff pick: Hilary Mantel's "Mirror and the light"

This book can be found here.

This is the final instalment of her celebrated trilogy on the life of Thomas Cromwell, who rose to be Lord Privy Seal to King Henry VIII of England, basically running the government of the realm. He helped solve the King’s Great Problem of how to divorce Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn in the first two books. Now there is a third Queen hoping to deliver the much-anticipated son and heir to carry on the Tudor dynasty. History tells us that three more Queens will await their fate after this Queen. Remember the rhyme:

Divorced, beheaded, died

Divorced, beheaded, survived.

Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour

Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, Katherine Parr.

The earlier books in the trilogy, "Wolf Hall" and "Bring up the bodies", each won the Mann Booker Prize in 2009 and 2012, respectively. They were worthy winners. We won’t know until later in the year if this third book will be nominated, I will be surprised if it isn’t. Her style in these books is to create a vast, much peopled canvas, to follow the diverse nobles and the few commoners who shaped events, to have an overarching commentary from Thomas and to range back and forth in time. This enables her to bring forward incidents that developed his character, talents, networks and alliances as they are relevant to the current action. I found the back and forth in time a little bit jarring in Wolf Hall; it seemed much smoother in the next two, or perhaps the scene had been set and I had adjusted to her style.

Thomas Cromwell was the son of a brewer, from a poor part of London, near to the bottom of the social hierarchy. As a child, he worked in the kitchens of great houses. He went to the Netherlands and Italy, working with merchants and understanding finance. Double entry bookkeeping had been invented to keep the accounts of the great Italian merchant companies and printing was underway and books were becoming available to the rising merchant class as well as nobles and Church dignitaries. Whilst in Italy, he acquires a second-hand book.  This is one example of Mantel’s research. She knows the printer/publishers and their printer’s marks or devices, giving this book the mark of the dolphin and anchor of a famous Venetian printer: https://nyamcenterforhistory.org/2018/05/07/makers-mark-a-look-at-early-modern-printers-devices/. This is one small detail and it is matched by her careful attention to all aspects of Cromwell’s life and of English life during Tudor times.

When Cromwell comes back to England, he works for Cardinal Wolsey, then high in Henry’s favour. It is a great learning ground for a man who does appear to have been exceptionally able, much to the chagrin of the various nobles who envy his rise to power and who believe that lesser people in the social strata just are less able. But if the head that wears the crown is uneasy, it is more dangerous to be close enough to the King to know his secrets and weaknesses, and fatal not to be able to give him what he wants. Cromwell rises further on Wolsey’s fall and in turn will fall himself.

I normally like to race through a book to find out how the story develops but this is a familiar story to me as the Tudor period is one in which I have a great interest. I found I took this book at a more leisurely pace and there is much detail to digest. Knowing his story, I tended to linger, to enjoy the Tudor milieu, to delay the inevitable void. No more will there be a volume to look forward to. I might have to start again at the beginning and re-read the three of them.

It is long at 875 pages, but it is a pleasure to read, full of very readable detail about clothes, food, court etiquette etc. Mantel’s prose soars on the page, transporting you to Cromwell’s urban childhood in Putney; to the spring gardens of the great houses; to the bloody work of the butchers that provide the vast quantities of game, beef, lamb and pork to the great house tables; to the political machinations of the great families, and to the dreams and fancies of Princess/Lady Mary who was raised and lowered by their father with every passing marriage. Elizabeth, her half-sister was so much younger that she does not figure as much in the story, although equally affected by the succession uncertainties. If Cromwell was an intelligent, hardworking man able to conceptualise and keep track of all the economic, religious and political activity in the kingdom, he is surely matched by his creator in fiction. She illuminates her subject in every chapter.

Henry gives Cromwell a vacant position in the Order of the Garter, the highest award for the nobility to aspire to, some of whom are not impressed that they must share the honour with a commoner. But it is not politic to grumble at the King’s decisions. New people are appointed as vacancies arise. There are two vacant places but one is being held for the Royal child currently kicking in Queen Jane’s womb. On the night before he is invested with the Order, Cromwell goes to bed early…

He needs a space in which he can watch the future shaping itself, as dusk steals over the river and the park, smudges the forms of ancient trees: there are nightingales in the copses, but we will not hear them again this year. Tomorrow, all eyes will turn, not to the Garter stall he fills, but to the vacancy, where a prince as yet unborn reaches for the statute book, and bows his blind head in its caul. Why does the future feel so much like the past, the uncanny clammy touch of it, the rustle of bridal sheet or shroud, the crackle of fire in a shuttered room? Like breath misting glass, like the nightingale’s trace on the air, like a wreath of incense, like vapour, like water, like scampering feet and laughter in the dark….furiously he wills himself to sleep. But he is tired of trying to wake up different. In stories there are folk who, observed at dawn or dusk in some open, watery space, are seen to flit and twist in the air like spirits, or fledge leather wings through their flesh. Yet he is no such wizard. He is not a snake who can slip his skin. He is what the mirror makes, when it assembles him each day: Jolly Tom from Putney. Unless you have a better idea?      -- pp 504-5

If you want an impartial consideration of this book you will have to seek that elsewhere. I love the period, I love English history (it is my heritage) and I love this book. It’s not for everyone, but it is definitely for me. I hope it is for you, too!

For further reading, other worthy historical novelists dealing with the period include Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir.

-- Wendy

Stop! Grammar time.

This resource can be found here. It is part of our online nonfiction collection of items that you have free access to with a library card. All you have to do is scroll down to the bottom of this page, and log in.



This first 'Grammar time' is going to look at something that can confuse anybody. Homonyms and homophones ... big words that mean big, fun things.



Homonyms are words that are spelled the same and sound the same, but have different meanings. As you can see from the cover of this book, the word 'bear' is both spelled exactly the same and sounds the same when you say it, but it has two different meanings. 

So, in the title of this book:

Bear means the animal and
Bear means how much one person can handle

So that is what a homonym is! 

Homophones are words that sound the same, but are both spelled differently and mean different things. Again, the example on the cover uses the words 'bare' and 'bear' to show this. These words are spelled differently and mean different things, but sound the same. 

So:

Bare is b, a, r, e and means to wear no clothes (like in the cover image) and
Bear is b, e, a, r and means the animal 

You might not be interested in understading the names of these kinds of words; but knowing the difference is important when you are writing documents or even learning to read and write. 

The good thing about our eResource collection, is that this book by Cleary and Gable is written in a fun way that gives readers a lot of examples of both homonyms and homophones. The illustrations are fun too! It is also written for younger audiences, so it won't take long. 

Have a look at the book; or try and find other homonyms and homophones to play around with! 

Words are fun! Get it right when you write, and one by one, you'll have won at 'Grammar time'!

Stuart Turton's "Seven deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle"

This book can be found here.

Turton’s novel is his debut. It won the First Novel Award at the 2018 Costa Book Awards and is a Sunday Times bestseller; so head’s up, it won’t be bad. As an aside, before I get into the book, in the United States it is known as ‘7 ½ deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’. Whether that gives anything away or not to you; I don’t know.

‘We have work to do,' he says. 'I have a puzzle which requires a solution.'

'I think you've mistaken me for someone else,' I say. 'I'm just a doctor.'

'You were a doctor,' he says. 'Then a butler, today a playboy, tomorrow a banker. None of them are your real face, or your real personality. Those were stripped from you when you entered Blackheath and they won't be returned until you leave.' 

Great quote, right? That’s why I used it. And it will draw you in to the story you are going to want to read.

The story is about a character called Aiden who has been told he needs to solve a murder at Blackheath House. As simple as any crime novel? Except that at the end of each day, the day repeats and Aiden finds himself in another guest at Blackheath House, with what clues he has remembered. That is correct. He inhabits the bodies of guests at Blackheath House to solve a murder.

As far as the plot goes, it can be disorientating, but it is very solid. There is an historical setting to the novel, which is interesting given the way the main character Aiden moves through the novel (science-fiction-like, if you will). However, it is well-paced, and it isn’t drenched in description. In fact, the plot is much denser than the description, which helps the pace. This therefore makes it more complex than an Agatha Christie novel, though the same “whodunnit” theme can be found across. But it is a nice step up from Christie if you are used to reading her.

In terms of character … because of how Aiden works, and so I do not give too much away, I cannot say much about Aiden himself. However, all the characters at Blackheath are well-developed, different from each other and sordid. Surely that’s a Christie word, right? Most characters have dark secrets and character traits that make them unlikeable; so, it also makes it hard (at least for me) to really tell who did commit the crime until the end. Yet it also adds depth to the characters, the setting and the plot, as all these characters appear multi-layered.

This book was a very solid first novel; and reads like it isn’t. There is crime, action, deception, science fiction elements, mystery … it’s almost an all-rounder, making it a good suggestion for any reader.

Links for you:

Title read-a-likes in the Library:

Life after life

Kate Atkinson

This novel has an historical setting, is structurally complex and has a main protagonist who lives days over and over again. It is more humourous than Turton’s and removes the mystery / crime element from it.  

Author read-a-likes in the Library:

Minette Walters’ books

Tends to write in a similar style with stylistically complex writing, intricate plots and a creepy tone. A lot of the items in the list (there is a trilogy there) have historical settings; and others are more suspenseful.

Author read-a-likes in cloudLibrary:

Into the water

Paula Hawkins

Hawkins tends to write in a similar style with stylistically complex writing, intricate plots and a creepy tone.

New Poirot mysteries

Sophie Hannah

These were chosen as Hannah was commissioned to write new Poirot novels in the vein of Christie (she also writes her own suspense / thrillers). These will be typical “whodunnits” with the crime and mystery elements similar; though possibly less suspenseful, yet with historical elements and intricate plots. 

Bridget Collins’ “The binding”

This book can be found here.

“Memories,’ she said, at last. ‘Not people, Emmett. We take memories and bind them. Whatever people can’t bear to remember. Whatever they can’t live with. We take those memories and put them where they can’t do any harm. That’s all books are.”

This book is set in maybe an 19^th - early 20^th Century-style lifestyle (don’t ask me specifically which one, I still might be wrong with that broad a guess). So, there is no technology, but there is a sense of industrialisation in parts. A concept of progress, whilst Collins, like Dickens, shows the limitations to the idea of progress. But this setting also, besides the gloominess of the future of people, also helps understand why the characters themselves might be more desperate, more closed, more … lacking hope as well.

I think the setting is solid (though not close to Dickens at all), though the realism comes more from the characters and their responses to situations and ideas. Whilst the characters aren’t completely lost in their hopelessness or so desperate as to be pathetic (in some cases, not all), there is a realism that helps you see how hard it would be to live in this society. And this is where the plot comes in.

Emmett Farmer (yes, his last name reflects his and his family’s occupation) is an ill, weak boy who after a nasty turn is given to a book binder Seredith, to learn the trade and hopefully recover. ‘Book binding’ I hear you say? Yeah, this is where the fantastical element of the plot fits in. Binding is taking memories that are unwanted by someone (they must agree to the binding) and turning those memories into a book that should be stored and secured, unless the living person wants to remember again at some point. I could say a lot more about the binding process, but it might spoil the novel. The main part being the fact that one of the Binder’s customers, Lucian Darnay seems linked to Emmett in some way … dum dum dah.

This, for the first part of the novel is not completely understood and adds mystery to the novel. However, the second part (it is divided into three), explains it all, and the third therefore reveals the conclusion of the consequences of such bindings. So, whilst the core of the novel seems to move around traditions and memory, there is also love (biggest spoiler of the novel, unless you can pick it early on once you start reading).

The thing is I think the plot moves slowly. It takes a long time to build up, and in a sense never really does ultimately climax. It also ends too openly, and almost too positively, for the period this world and characters live in. Probably not bad for a reader, but it removes the realism slightly.

The characters are well built. They are realistic; more so than the plot. They aren’t just “nice” or “good” or “kind”. The characters are completely flawed in multiple ways and … dark. They can just be downright awful. This is not just main characters, but secondary ones as well. You will have no real hope in humanity from this book (again possibly like some of Dickens’ characters); even if you think the end is uplifting. And whilst I think this is what Collins has done to balance the novel in a world where there are such things as forbidden love, it could be hard to read for some.

And where does that leave me? In a bind … ha ha. I really enjoy realistic novels, where there is a lot of grit and darkness. The characters were real enough for me; which was positive. However, the book is slow; so, it will take a while for any reader to get into. The fantastical elements of binding were also very solid and unique. However, if you don’t like characters being overly secretive, dark or gritty, don’t bother. Just look at the pretty cover.

Links for you:

Title read-a-likes in the Library:

The ten thousand doors of January

Alix E. Harrow

Harrow was chosen for its 19th and early 20th Century’s focus, and the lyrical way Harrow writes. The story also focusses on young protagonists seeking answers to their pasts through magical libraries (of sorts).

Title read-a-likes in cloudLibrary:

The starless sea

Erin Morgenstern

Morgenstern was chosen because of the multiple perspectives telling the story which features LGBTQIA diverse characters. There is also a connection to the theme of “books about books”.

Staff pick: Rachel Clarke's "Dear life"

You can find this book here.

I just finished this wonderful book.

Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor working in NHS in England. The book describes how she came to that specialty and what she has learnt from her patients, their families and her colleagues. Her father, a GP, gets cancer and eventually is in need of palliative care himself. I would love to have her as my doctor if the need arose.

I smiled & wept throughout this book which brought me back to some difficult memories but ultimately it was life affirming. 

The last line from Philip Larkin's poem 'An Arundel Tomb' is quoted towards the end.....

"What will survive of us is love."

-- Wendy