THOMAS CROMWELL

'The Rise and Fall of Henry VIII's Most Notorious Minister', this timely publication coincides with the second part of the BBC TV series on Cromwell and the Tudors based on the Hilary Mantel books Wolf Hall and The Mirror and the Light. Thomas Cromwell was the son of a brewer who rose from obscurity to become 'Earl of Essex, Vice-Regent and High Chamberlain of England, Keep of the Privy Seal and Chancellor of the Exchequer'. He manoeuvred his way to the top by intrigue, bribery and sheer force of personality in a court dominated by the malevolent King Henry. Cromwell pursued the interests of the king with single-minded energy and no little subtlety. He was tasked with engineering the judicial murder of Anne Boleyn when she had worn out her welcome in the royal bedchamber, he tortured her servants and relations, then organised a 'show trial' of great efficiency. He orchestrated the 'greatest act of privatisation in English history' - the seizure of all the assets and dissolution of the monasteries. Their enormous wealth was used to cement the loyalty of the English nobility, and to enrich the Crown. Cromwell made himself a fortune too, soliciting colossal bribes and binding the noble families to him with easy loans. He came home from court literally weighed down with gold. The story of his rise and fall is a colourful narrative history rich in incidents and squalid details. Told with an infectious relish, the book evokes the politics and personalities of this extraordinary decade. 360pp, paperback with eight pages of black and white archive photos.