Wonderful Wolsey

I think I may have discovered something - a piece of good advice if you're thinking of writing a novel where you mean to defend a much-maligned historical or fictional character. Don't tell it from his or her point of view: tell it from the point of view of someone close to him or her.

I'm reading "Wolf Hall" and yes, it is seriously good. I knew Hilary Mantel could spin a yarn because I read "A Place Of Greater Safety" a great many years ago (although I must admit, French Revolution fanatic that I was, that I skipped some of the back-story and zoomed in around 1789). At first I was incensed because the author off-handedly slated my favourite revolutionary: "Max was surprised that any girl would be attracted by Fouché, with his frail, stick-like limbs and almost lashless eyes." Ironically, this is probably exactly what Maximilien Robespierre (though Max seems an unlikely nickname for him, like a flamboyant theatre agent or sci-fi baddie) did think. Still, I mean to say, what. Mantel didn't have to sound as if she agreed with him. This aberration of taste put me in a bad mood, and yet I grudgingly had to admit that "A Place Of Greater Safety" was a good read. If you're interested in the French Revolution, go ahead and read it, but bear in mind that the characterisation can be quite cynical. Camille and Lucile Desmoulins, the revolution's golden couple, as manipulative monsters? Babette Duplay a nymphomaniac? Surely not. Robespierre, whether or not he is a Max, is spot on, though.

Anyway, back to "Wolf Hall" and the art of saving someone's reputation at one remove. The novel is narrated from Thomas Cromwell's point of view, but it's not he (so far) who comes out of it best. Mantel's Cromwell is admirably able, but he's more bulldog than wolf. Sometimes he can be funny - as when he's sparring with Anne Boleyn - but a great deal of the time he's quite dour. I rather miss the popular image of Cromwell the villain - but then I would. Cromwell's master Cardinal Wolsey, on the other hand, is delightful. When seeing Wolsey's portrait in The National Portrait Gallery, I have asked myself how they could have the face to engage Sam Neill to play this man. Now I understand. Ah, the charm, the wit, and somewhere beneath it all, underlying kindness too! When it comes to Wolsey, Mantel has won me over completely. Let's see if she can do the same for her hero in time - there's more than half the book to go.

Elsewhere, there is not the same cynicism as in "A Place Of Greater Safety". The characterisation seems mellower. Of course, the sainted More is depicted as thoroughly nasty beneath his surface geniality. But then he was, wasn't he?