Wolf Hall... struggling...

well, you're all thick then.

(even if I am unsure of quite what century we are currently inhabiting)

well, at book club last night none of us liked it. i was the only one who had read it all the way through.

I will finish it tonight, I think!

I still really like TC and totally disagree with the pyschopath comment below. I'm finding him extremely human and really like the snippets of his family life and his relationships with Rafe etc.

I didn't realise there was going to be sequel. Don't know if I'll bother with it if there is and certainly wouldn't willingly pick up another of hers.

But the history and the man are enough to hold my interest in places where the style is deficient on this.

Whoever said that you shouldn't see it as a historical novel hit the nail on the head. The 1st time round I found it very slow, partly because I was waiting for Henry and Anne Boleyn to be wheeled in. The 2nd time round I stopped looking for that, slowed down and enjoyed the ride, and loved it. Can't wait for the sequel.

I took it on holiday and struggled esp when reading it whilst glugging sipping wine.
I think i will have to go back to the beginning.

AM glad it was not me getting al my Thomas's mixed up!

oh motherinferior how fantastic to find you here again... (tis BP)

OP, I felt the same, abandoned it after a few chapters. I got very confused (the 'he' thing nearly finished me off) and before long all I could see in the text was HM's style

In the end, I simply couldn't be ars*d

My sister and both parents (inc my father who never reads fiction) adored it. Go figure. It's a very Marmitey book, I guess

Ah, clever MI has said exactly what I was trying to get clear in my mind. I was resisting it, because I normally abhor historical novels - I enjoy reading about history, but at the first 'troth' or 'prithee' or 'my liege' I come over all of a whim-wham.

I am enjoying it because I am intrigued by the politics, the rise of the thinking that led to everything it led to, the charactyerisation of TC and the close up glimpse of domestic life - how humane he is, how progressive some of his ideas.

My only frustration is, we know the ending!

Found it difficult to get going, but once I did I was totally hooked and loved it. There were bits when I wasn't quite sure who was who, but I found if I just relaxed and kept reading, it became clear.

It really is a fantastic book, please keep reading!

totally agree, spent birthday book tokens on it following all the great reviews, it is irritating in the extreme, jumpy, incomprehensible in places. You'd think Cromwell was a psychopath.

I haven't read the whole thread but my copy is sitting beside my bed, where it's been for several months unfinished. Think I managed to get to Chapter 4

so pleased to see this thread, started reading it tonight, about 3 chapters in, really enjoying it but was getting confused over the 'hes' too! Glad Im not the only one! Will perserver though a love Tudor period.

I quite liked it at first, but it went on a bit. I was so disappointed in the ending too.

I enjoyed it, but I quite like anything Tudory.

The present tense thing was quite irritating.

The calling everyone "he" thing was also quite annoying, although frankly giving them their names probably wouldn't have helped as they were all called Thomas anyway. Except Anne Boleyn, obviously.

I keep having to take a break from it, current break has been quiet a long one

I hated Beyond Black - didn't even manage to finish it.

Okay - have now got to the 'secret' marriage. Must be nearly finished now!

Agree with Hullygully about everything, including the punitive papal mass

Some of them are. She wrote A Place of Greater Safety, about the French Revolution, which is equally brilliant. part of her brilliance is that all her books are very different.

oh no - I just swopped this book with a friend. I read Beyond Black and one of her others and quite enjoyed them so a friend leant me Wolf Hall - I was quite excited about reading it but maybe not now! Her other books are not really linked to history.

I started reading it on holiday last month and was really getting into it, but back in the real world I'm finding that it is just sitting on the coffee table gathering dust. I can't seem to muster up the concentration levels necessary to keep up with it after a day of work and running around after the DC.

I really want to get back into it though.

I'm just wondering how soon I'm going to lose sympathy with him - because so far I have liked him. The present tense thing is annoying me more and more though and she does like a waffle, doesn't she? Have only managed about 30 pages since I last reported!

nearly finished! (book club is monday night)

it's obviously not gonna take us all the way to the end of the story spoiler alert - he dies. in fact, they all die sooner or later.

I think the fact that I am still hanging around on here, instead of reading it, might be telling me something.