Hilary Mantel Books in Order: Complete Bibliography & Best Starting Points
Hilary Mantel's complete bibliography in order — from Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies to The Mirror and the Light. Best starting points for new readers.
Hilary Mantel (1952–2022) is the most celebrated British novelist of the early twenty-first century — the only writer to win the Man Booker Prize twice, both times for the Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Her work before the trilogy was widely admired but relatively little-read; Wolf Hall transformed her reputation and brought serious historical fiction back to the centre of literary culture.
The trilogy — Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, The Mirror and the Light — is the most sustained and technically accomplished work of historical fiction in English since Hilary Mantel herself set the standard.
The Thomas Cromwell Trilogy
Wolf Hall (2009)
The essential starting point — Cromwell’s rise from obscurity to the centre of Tudor power. Mantel’s present-tense narration and her decision to refer to Cromwell always as ‘he’ create an immediacy and intimacy that is unprecedented in historical fiction. The novel is simultaneously a political thriller (how does power work in Henry’s court?), a character study (who is Thomas Cromwell, really?), and a masterclass in prose style. Won the Man Booker Prize.
Bring Up the Bodies (2012)
The second volume — Cromwell orchestrates the destruction of Anne Boleyn. More concentrated, more brutal, and in some ways more disturbing than the first volume: we watch Cromwell manufacture a case against people he knows to be innocent, and we understand exactly why he is doing it. Won the Man Booker Prize — the only double winner in the prize’s history.
The Mirror and the Light (2020)
The final volume — Cromwell’s fall. Beginning exactly where Bring Up the Bodies ends (Anne Boleyn’s head has just been severed), the novel follows Cromwell through three years of accumulating danger to his own execution. The most emotionally demanding of the three and the most fully human portrait of Cromwell — by the end we understand both his greatness and his destruction.
Complete Bibliography (Major Works)
| Title | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Every Day Is Mother’s Day | 1985 | First novel; social work |
| Vacant Possession | 1986 | Sequel to Every Day |
| Eight Months on Ghazzah Street | 1988 | Saudi Arabia; expatriates |
| Fludd | 1989 | Northern England; supernatural |
| A Place of Greater Safety | 1992 | French Revolution |
| A Change of Climate | 1994 | South Africa; Norfolk |
| An Experiment in Love | 1995 | 1960s; women; London |
| The Giant, O’Brien | 1998 | Eighteenth-century giant; Sterne |
| Beyond Black | 2005 | Spiritualism; contemporary thriller |
| Wolf Hall | 2009 | Cromwell I; Man Booker Prize |
| Bring Up the Bodies | 2012 | Cromwell II; Man Booker Prize |
| The Mirror and the Light | 2020 | Cromwell III; completion |
Reading Order Recommendations
New to Mantel: Wolf Hall → Bring Up the Bodies → The Mirror and the Light.
Before the trilogy: A Place of Greater Safety → Wolf Hall → Bring Up the Bodies → The Mirror and the Light.
Complete Cromwell: Wolf Hall → Bring Up the Bodies → The Mirror and the Light (in order only).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best Hilary Mantel book to start with?
Wolf Hall (2009) is the essential starting point — the first volume of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy, following Cromwell's rise from blacksmith's son to Henry VIII's chief minister. Mantel's use of the present tense and the pronoun 'he' for Cromwell (always 'he' unless otherwise specified) creates an unusual intimacy and immediacy for a historical novel; the result is one of the most technically accomplished novels in English of the early twenty-first century. Won the Man Booker Prize.
What is Wolf Hall about?
Wolf Hall (2009) follows Thomas Cromwell from his difficult childhood — son of a violent blacksmith in Putney, fled to Europe, soldier, merchant — to his emergence as the most powerful man in England after Cardinal Wolsey's fall from grace. The novel's subject is power: how Cromwell obtains it, how he uses it, and what it costs. Henry VIII's desire to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn is the political crisis that Cromwell navigates. Mantel's Cromwell is pragmatic, intelligent, emotionally complex, and not entirely sympathetic — one of the great fictional portraits of a real historical figure.
What is Bring Up the Bodies about?
Bring Up the Bodies (2012) follows Cromwell through the fall of Anne Boleyn — Henry's second wife, whose failure to produce a male heir leads to her arrest, trial, and beheading. Cromwell orchestrates the case against Anne, manufacturing evidence and coercing testimony, and the novel is an investigation of what Cromwell is willing to do, and why. More concentrated than Wolf Hall (400 pages vs 650), and darker; the machinery of Tudor power politics is exposed with unsparing precision. Won the Man Booker Prize — Mantel became the first person to win it twice.
What is The Mirror and the Light about?
The Mirror and the Light (2020) completes the trilogy — following Cromwell from Anne Boleyn's execution to his own, three years later. Cromwell at the height of his power, then the gradual deterioration of his position as enemies accumulate and Henry turns against him. Mantel invests these final years with a tragic inevitability: we know from the beginning that Cromwell will die on the scaffold, and the novel is about how a man who has survived everything eventually cannot survive. At 880 pages, the longest of the three — and the most emotionally demanding.
