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!!

@Copperas

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

Totally agree. In fact, Hilary Manel has said it was the book that inspired her.

Thank you so much for all these recommendations! I adored Wolf Hall so much and am always on the look out for something similar.

I second (third?) Life After Life and its (sort of) sequel, A God In Ruins. Wonderful books. And they're totally different in style and content but I adored the historical London setting of the Rivers of London books.

Finally, try Sarah Waters. I would start with Fingersmith

Fingersmith is brilliant, IMO.

Please ditch Simple Pleasures. Absolute crap.

I would also recommend Life after Life or anything by Elizabeth Strout.

Circe
Fingersmith
A gentleman in Moscow
Any Human Heart
The Cazalets
Rebecca
Remains of the Day

Katherine by Anya Seton

@Palavah amazing shout for Any Human Heart.

AS Byatt might go down well. Possession and The Children's Book probably the best two to start with.

For another excellent female writer try Sarah Moss - she is very different from Hilary Mantel, but is as good at the internal life and historical or modern worlds.

She’s done two books - bodies of light - and ‘signs for lost children’ which cover the first female graduates into medicine as well as a William Morris type figure, highland clearances, Japan opening to the West, Victorian care of the mentally ill - a lot, but with an impressive lightness of touch that brings it all into 2 books that won the Wellcome prize but didn’t reach as wide an audience as they really deserve.

Her other books like Night Waking are ace too.

I’d go for more mantel too after a rest as there’s so much more eg Beyond Black.

Barbara Kingsolver poisonwood bible

Susannah Clarke Jonathan strange and mr norrell; piranesi

I felt exactly the same on finishing The Mirror and The Light; I honestly didn’t know what to do with myself!

I loved Piranesi, which is mentioned above, and also all the Kate Atkinsons. You might like Louis de Bernieres? Birds Without Wings is brilliant; you can really get lost in it, in the same way. I like Ken Follett, whose books are meticulously researched, but much lighter than Hilary Mantel

Loved lots of these. If you enjoyed Anthony Doerr you’re in luck as his latest one Cloud Cuckoo Land is hefty and should keep you going a while, multiple story lines spanning centuries that he just about manages to weave in together to the end

Beyond Black by Mantel is wonderful.
Also Circe, Song of Achilles.

I loved Simple Pleasures OP, but obviously a very different feel to Tudor Britain. I mourned when I finished it, it was as if my favourite vintage jacket had breathed its last and was no longer wearable. There, I’m getting into the twee vibe all over again.

Jonathan Strange is a great shout!

A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago.

Telegraph reviewer actually wrote -
'Sumptuous … If you're feeling bereft after finishing The Mirror and the Light, let Jago transport you to the Jacobean court'

@Leaningtoweroflisa

For another excellent female writer try Sarah Moss - she is very different from Hilary Mantel, but is as good at the internal life and historical or modern worlds.

She’s done two books - bodies of light - and ‘signs for lost children’ which cover the first female graduates into medicine as well as a William Morris type figure, highland clearances, Japan opening to the West, Victorian care of the mentally ill - a lot, but with an impressive lightness of touch that brings it all into 2 books that won the Wellcome prize but didn’t reach as wide an audience as they really deserve.

Her other books like Night Waking are ace too.

I’d go for more mantel too after a rest as there’s so much more eg Beyond Black.

Barbara Kingsolver poisonwood bible

Susannah Clarke Jonathan strange and mr norrell; piranesi

I absolutely LOVE Signs for Lost Children! Barbara Kingsolver is terrific. I like Unsheltered, and my favourite of hers is Prodigal Summer. The Essex Serpent is wonderful.

Mention of the Cazalet Chronicles reminds me of Rosamund Pilcher; utterly absorbing family sagas.

I'd second the Cazalet Chronicles, I'm on the 4th book and I'm really enjoying them. There's something very interesting about war time novels focusing on ordinary and not so ordinary lives.