Hilary Mantel - Bring Up the Bodies

Hilary Mantel - Bring Up the Bodies

Author: BBC Radio 4 September 26, 2022 Duration: 27:01

In a special programme first broadcast in 2013, Hilary Mantel discusses Bring Up the Bodies, her second Man Booker Prize-winning novel with James Naughtie and his Bookclub audience.

England, 1535. A one-time mercenary, master-politician, lawyer and doting father, Thomas Cromwell has risen from commoner to become King Henry VIII's chief adviser. He learnt everything he knew from his mentor Cardinal Wolsey, whose place he has taken.

Anne Boleyn is now Queen, her path to Henry's side cleared by Cromwell. But Henry remains without a male heir, and the conflict with the Catholic Church has left England dangerously isolated as France and the Holy Roman Empire manoeuvre for position.

Mantel charts how the King begins to fall in love with the seemingly plain Jane Seymour at her family home of Wolf Hall; how Cromwell must negotiate an increasingly dangerous court as he charms, bullies and manipulates nobility, commoners and foreign powers alike to satisfy Henry, and advance his own ambitions.

Hilary Mantel was the first author to win two Man Booker Prizes with consecutive novels. She discusses Bring Up the Bodies with Jim and her readers at the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival in Devon - and gives tantalising insights into the final part of the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light.

Producer : Dymphna Flynn


For over two decades, Bookclub from BBC Radio 4 has offered a unique and intimate space where literature is unpacked by the very people who brought it to life. Guided by the insightful James Naughtie, each episode gathers a small group of engaged readers for a candid conversation with an acclaimed author about one of their most significant works. This isn't a formal literary critique, but a deep, spoiler-filled discussion that feels like the best kind of book group meeting. Listeners are invited to sit in as the author revisits their creation, often sharing surprising stories about their inspiration, the challenges they faced during writing, and how they feel about the work years later. The questions from the readers are always thoughtful and often unexpected, leading to revelations that shed new light on familiar novels. This podcast provides a rare opportunity to move beyond the page and understand the craft, the choices, and the person behind a beloved book. It’s a consistently enriching experience for anyone who has ever finished a novel and immediately wished they could ask the author, "How did you do that?" or "What did you really mean here?" Tune in for thoughtful, revealing, and deeply human conversations that will change the way you think about your favorite stories.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Bookclub
Podcast Episodes
Sarah Winman:  Tin Man [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:36
James Naughtie and readers are joined by novelist Sarah Winman, answering questions about her novel Tin Man. It's a moving and intimate portrait of three characters, Michael, Ellis and Annie. They variously fall in love,…
Tan Twan Eng: The Garden of Evening Mists [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:52
Tan Twan Eng talks to James Naughtie and a group of readers about The Garden of Evening Mists. A lyrical novel set largely in 1950s Malay (now Malaysia), it tells the story of Yun Ling, imprisoned by Japanese soldiers du…
Nadifa Mohamed: The Fortune Men [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:46
Nadifa Mohamed joins James Naughtie and readers to talk about her award-winning novel The Fortune Men. Set in Cardiff in the 1950s, the novel is based on the real-life trial of Mahmood Mattan, a Somali seaman accused of…
Cal Flyn: Islands of Abandonment [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:36
James Naughtie and a group of readers talk to Cal Flyn about her acclaimed book, Islands of Abandonment, an exploration of places which have been reclaimed by nature. She talks about her travels to Cyprus, the Orkney Isl…
Ross King: Brunelleschi's Dome [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:49
Historian Ross King answers listener questions about his book Brunelleschi's Dome. An incredible story of one man's determination to build an apparently impossible structure, it's a tale of ingenuity, artistic rivalries,…
AJ Pearce: Dear Mrs Bird [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:33
James Naughtie is joined by writer A J Pearce and a group of listeners, as she answers their questions about her bestselling novel Dear Mrs Bird. Set in London in the 1940s, it’s the story of Emmy who has ambitions to be…
Juan Gabriel Vasquez:  The Sound of Things Falling [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:52
Juan Gabriel Vasquez answers audience questions about The Sound of Things Falling. Set in Colombia, the novel examines the personal and private impact of the drug wars that ravaged the country during the 1970s, 80s and 9…
Curtis Sittenfeld: American Wife [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:43
Curtis Sittenfeld answers listener questions about American Wife, a novel which follows Alice Lindgren's path from school librarian to First Lady, and is based on the life of former First Lady Laura Bush. Our next record…
Kathleen Jamie: Selected Poems [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:37
Bookclub travels to Edinburgh where Scotland's Makar Kathleen Jamie answers readers questions about her Selected Poems, and her writing life.Many poems here celebrate the natural world; Kathleen Jamie writes about animal…