They've done it again! As Eileen Battersby says in today's Irish Times, 'in true Man Booker tradition, [Hilary] Mantel has won with an inferior work'.
The British love affair with historical fiction continues unabated and the judges have turned their backs on the astonishing work of Will Self's, Umbrella, and the no less impressive Lighthouse by Alison Moore. No wonder the demand for European translations is rising! Bring up the Bodies is the second book of the trilogy Mantel is composing, the first one, Wolf Hall, having already won the Booker. It continues the story of Thomas Cromwell who was Henry VIII's right hand man and this time centres on the life and execution of Anne Boleyn. No great excitement then nor any great writing.
