I read this book both because it had been made into a PBS series and because it had won a Man Booker prize. I have not seen the series yet, but would like to now. It's the story of Thomas Cromwell advisor to king Henry VIII in Tudor England. The book is long and I didn't really get into it until about 2/3 of the way through. I think it was worth my efforts to stick with it though. I was not that familiar with the story of England breaking away from the Catholic church and found it really interesting. Apparently Cromwell is often characterized as a manipulative, ruthless man, but Mantel takes a different approach, making him intelligent, thoughtful, pragmatic, and, yes, manipulative, but for, in his mind, good reasons. One thing that made the book difficult was Mantel's use of 'he' instead of Cromwell's name. Even knowing that, it was often hard to tell exactly who she was talking about, and it required back tracking a few paragraphs to figure it out. That added to making the book a very long read. I still would recommend it however.
Mantel has written a sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, which is the 2nd in a planned trilogy. I have a copy of it, but won't be reading it for a while. I need to read a bunch of quick-read mysteries and spy novels first :)
