Where to start with Hilary Mantel

British novelist, 1952–2022. Won the Booker Prize in 2009 and 2012, the Costa Novel Award in 2012 and the Walter Scott Prize in 2010 and 2021.

Best Hilary Mantel book to start with: Wolf Hall (2009), on 10 of the 18 lists it could have made.

Wolf Hall, the book that won her the Booker Prize, is where to begin. It follows Thomas Cromwell’s rise in the court of Henry VIII. It’s told in the present tense, and the word “he” nearly always means Cromwell, which confuses people at first. It soon stops.

After that comes Bring Up the Bodies, which is shorter and faster and also won the Booker Prize. Then The Mirror and the Light, which finishes the trilogy. It is the longest of the three, so save it for when you want to commit. Read the three in order.

Beyond Black is a modern novel about a medium, and it’s darkly funny. Read it before or after the trilogy rather than in the middle: the three Cromwell books build on each other and are best read close together.