Simply brilliant. I genuinely didn't think that this could meet the standard of its predecessor, but with so much of the groundwork laid in Mantel's Wolf Hall, this novel moves at a brisk clip towards the inevitable events the reader knows are coming, and the delicious turn of phrase, the oblique shadowing, the sharp character portraits all flow fast and satisfyingly.

Cromwell seems far more masterful in this - having decided what outsome is necessary, we see him skilfully and carefully set each piece where he wants it on the board. The surprising feature of Mantel's writing is how she manages this without every relying on trope or cliche. Cromwell leaps of the page as he sees himself, and the writing is never less than elegant, and often sly, and often humorous. It is in Cromwell's attention to the details - from the cost of importing an executioner (acceptable, because after all, his services are unlikely to be needed again), to which courtier laughs at which joke, that his passions, uncertainty and humanity emerges. And as we see the court dance their roles as Cromwell sees them, the sense of how our societies create who we are, how we make our peace with morals as we need to make our peace with our roles, unfurls slowly enough, and subtly enough that the book will linger on.