Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. Feeling a bit ambivalent about it, TBH, as I did about Wolf Hall. You can see why people rave about her, and them, and there's no denying she is a brilliant writer, but there's something not quite right about them, for me at least. Something to do with showing off, and being a bit too pleased with herself, and she does wear her research on her sleeve a bit too much for my liking.
But as I say, boy, the woman can write! She drops in little turns of phrase that just stop you in your tracks - a dejected character looking 'cold as a doorstep orphan'. And how about this for the dying days of the middle ages: 'But chivalry's day is over. One day soon moss will grow in the tilt yard. The days of the moneylender have arrived, and the days of the swaggering privateer; banker sits down with banker, and kings are their waiting boys.'
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