Bereft after finishing wolf hall trilogy

[TiddleTaddleTat]

I found wolf hall really difficult initially, but persisted. By half way I was engrossed. Loved bring up the bodies and the mirror and the light (though it was a slow start).
I finished it over a week ago and I'm totally bereft! Feel like I'm grieving. It was about 4 months of reading.

What would I like next?

Other books I've enjoyed over the past year or two-
All the light I cannot see - Anthony Doerr
The searcher - tana french
Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell

What else will I like ?
I was recommended simple pleasures by Clare chambers but it feels so twee after mantel's writing - I am just missing Cromwell!!

Sorry realist I've repeated myself a bit there have had some wine

@TiddleTaddleTat

I found wolf hall really difficult initially, but persisted. By half way I was engrossed. Loved bring up the bodies and the mirror and the light (though it was a slow start). I finished it over a week ago and I'm totally bereft! Feel like I'm grieving. It was about 4 months of reading.

What would I like next?

Other books I've enjoyed over the past year or two-
All the light I cannot see - Anthony Doerr
The searcher - tana french
Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell

What else will I like ?
I was recommended simple pleasures by Clare chambers but it feels so twee after mantel's writing - I am just missing Cromwell!!

I've just picked up The Manningtree Witches. It's utterly brilliant and the scholarship and research is as considered and effortless as Mantel's. It's Blakemore's first novel after winning poetry prizes so the writing is just beautiful. I'm utterly riveted but it's also a pretty harrowing read with that sense you get with WH that you don't really know what's coming.

I came on the thread to recommend Hamnet, but I see you've read it already! Maybe Kate Atkinson's Life after Life and A God in Ruins. Also Circe by Madeline Miller.

But nothing comes close to Wolf Hall.

Oh no! I also hated Wolf Hall, but enjoyed the subsequent books in the trilogy.

Ugh Simple Pleasures is a HEAP OF SHIT (imo obviously). Avoid like the plague. It's dreadful. The main protagonist, (whose name escapes me), is so unlikeable. It's just bad and according to reviews, the ending really annoyed the people who, (for some bizarre reason), enjoyed the rest of the book. I hated the whole book. Couldn't have cared less about the ending.

Oh there's another series with Cromwell (but he isn't likeable in it). The author is C J Sampson and one of the books is called Lamentations.

You must read Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety. An amazing book with several similarities to Wolf Hall.

Thank you for these ideas! I will certainly look into them.

It was my dad who recommended simple pleasures ... usually we are on a similar page with reading but I absolutely hate this book and at half way am wondering whether to push through or ditch it.

@BoredOfSamphire I absolutely loved Hamnet . One of the best books I've ever read. I just wish it was longer !!
@JoanOgden thank you, I'll see if the library has a copy.

If you fancy another hefty Mantel there’s her French Revolution one ‘A Place of Greater Safety.’ If you’re up for a family saga there’s Elizabeth Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles or AS Byatt’s Frederica Quartet.

For a different perspective on the same period as Wolf Hall, try The Man on a Donkey by HFM Prescott - currently free on kindle. It is exceptionally good

Although I have it in hard copy I think I’ll get it on kindle too

I dont think there is much to compare to Mantels particular style. She is unique and definitely a marathon NOT a sprint. I found some place for my grieving ( for finishing the books and re- reading twice) with Elena Ferrante- the Neapolitan Novels. From memory 5 books . Such a good read!! Cracking story with brilliant writing. ' she' also has this mystery around her which i love. Isobel Allende is another to look at.

And if you have not discovered Dorothy Dunnett then you have the most amazing time ahead of you

I'm writing all these down !!
@Ickle37 thanks for the reminder of Allende's work, I read some years ago and really enjoyed it

@Copperas would you start with The Game Of Kings: The Lymond Chronicles Book One? It's the first book that's come up.

For a different perspective on Cromwell's period, CJ Samson's Shardlake series. About the most classy of the crossover mystery/crime fiction and historical fiction that's going at the moment.

Dissolution 2003

Dark Fire 2004

Sovereign 2006

Revelation 2008

Heartstone 2010

Lamentation 2014

Tombland 20

Shardlake is great, but it will probably seem very light after Wolf Hall. More so because of being set in the same era.

For the language, I would recommend Amor Towles "A Gentleman in Moscow" it's beautifully written (like Mantel's work) and really transports you. I wrote some sentences down from the Wolf Hall trilogy and I also did the same from this book

I see someone has beaten me to it with Dorothy Dunnett. I would start with A game of Kings. I am jealous of anyone who gets to read the books for the first time!

I enjoyed Eleanor Ferrante, but for what it's worth found Hamnet overwritten and disappointing but a lot of people love it.

Second 'A Place of Greater Safety', it's wonderful.

I also love stories set in the English Civil War, and really enjoyed a book called As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann.

Also An Instance at the Fingerpost by Ian Pears.

A Place of Greater Safety is wonderful. I absolutely loved it.

Yes, Game of Thrones. It takes a bit of getting in to, but it’s really worth it

An other vote for the Shardlake series, start with Dissolution, the author is C J SANSOM.

Like you OP, I was bereft at finishing the Wolf Hall trilogy, and I feel the same now, just having finished An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris.
It’s a plot that really draws you in, with very believable characters, I’d really recommend it.

Also loved Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels.

I couldn't get on with the Elena Ferrante novels. I loved the sound of them but never felt engaged by the first and didn't bother trying the others. I know I'm in a minority here.

OP, have a look at Rose Tremain, especially Music and Silence and Restoration, both well written novels in a historical setting.

Earth and Heaven by Sue Gee is excellent.

I also rate Jane Harris's The Observations and Gillespie and I.

Finally, try Sarah Waters. I would start with Fingersmith.

I second Madeline Miller. Circe, Song of Achilles.

Life after Life is great.
How about Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker?
Or Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy (First World War).
I think you need something different from Mantel, as nothing will compare.