The Mirror and the Light

Hilary Mantel

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The Mirror and the Light was a Sunday Times bestseller, shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, and longlisted for the Booker Prize. Now in its third and final volume, we are in the 1530s, in the closing years of the reign of Henry VIII. The story begins with the death of Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife, and ends with the death of Thomas Cromwell, Henry's chief minister. Cromwell has risen from nothing to become the king's chief minister. He has reorganized the English church, and destroyed the monasteries. He has made himself indispensable to the king, and feared by the king's enemies. But now Cromwell faces his greatest challenge. The king is growing old and unpredictable. His enemies are circling. And Cromwell himself is in danger. In this magnificent final volume, Mantel brings us to the dark heart of history, where power is everything, and the price of loyalty is paid in blood.