Wolf Hall

Now one of the most important households in Henry's reign was in fact not a palace, but a hall.

The Tudor home of the Seymour family known as Wolf Hall.

which you may have heard from Hilary Mantel's books or the TV series based on them.

It's a place that holds so much incredible Tudor history, and for centuries, it was lost.

Why? Because Wolf Hall was demolished in 1723.

Historians know from records that it was a grand home with a king's chamber, a gatehouse, eight gardens, a long gallery, an armory, and much more.

But unfortunately, there is no surviving drawing of the property as King Henry would have seen it.

But in 2018, historian and Wolf Hall expert Graham Bath helped lead a dig on the edge of Savarnack Forest in Wiltshire, and finally discovered some foundations of this famous 16th century property.

They're born just a few years apart.

Uh, for anyone who loves Hilary Mantel and Wolf Hall, if you remember the character of Rafe, who, who is part of, um, Thomas Cromwell's household- Chapman a- actually sort of grew up partly in that, or worked in the household of Ralph Sadler when he was older.

So there's a nice kind of connection to Mantle land there.

And he, in the 1590s, starts translating Homer from Greek into English.

I'm a fiction reader.

And mine's from Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, which is, in the words of Thomas Cromwell, he's my political, long-term political hero, which is the things you think are disasters in your life are not disasters, really.

Out of every ditch, a path, almost anything can be turned around if only you can see it.

Bored advice that sounds right, but is wrong.

We are entering the realm of courts, crowns, and the individuals who risk absolutely everything to climb the political ladder.

You cannot examine the ruthless mechanics of political climbing without looking at the notorious court of Henry VIII, which brings us to Hilary Mantel's 2009 masterpiece, Wolf Hall.

Mantel tackles a period of British history that is arguably oversaturated in popular culture.

The Tudors have been adapted into films, television series, stage musicals, you name it.

We felt the tide pool tension of a single hotel room in Bolshevik Russia with A Gentleman in Moscow.

Then zoomed all the way out for a multi-generational epic covering the 20th century in Pachinko.

And finally, we survived the ruthless, paranoid political ladders of Henry VIII's court in Wolf Hall and 14th century China in She Who Became The Sun.

And what emerges from examining these disparate narratives is a singular truth.

I mean, the other two, I mean, you know, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light, I thought actually were really well done.

I'm just surprised you like Mirror in the Night more than Wolf Hall.

Well, okay, you know the first 75 pages need to be hacked off with a butter knife.

But I do think, and this is me, this is her overuse of the pronoun he.

book by a good author.

You're not going there? Yeah, I'm not supporting that.

I think Wolf Hall is perfect.

Okay.