Jonathan Dodd‘s latest column. Guest opinion articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication. Ed
My wife Jo and I are utter Hilary Mantel fans. We’ve both read Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies at least once, and listened to it on audio too. There’s going to be a third and final part next year, I think. I wonder if she’ll make history by winning the Booker Prize for all of them. Two down, one to go.
Hilary Mantel has made herself an icon, a legend in her time, much in the way that JK Rowling did. She’s dominated the literary landscape for a while now, and she deserves all the prizes she has won. Her hero is Thomas Cromwell. Not Oliver, who ruled England briefly after chopping off the head of Charles the First, but the chief of staff and fixer for Henry the Eighth, a whole century earlier.
The England we know today
Although we know an awful lot of the history, Cromwell remains a shadowy man, rising from poor beginnings to become the most powerful man in the land, and helping Henry to finish off two marriages and start two new ones, overseeing the breakaway from the Roman Catholic Church, and the dissolution of the monasteries. Much of the England we know today was founded during those years.
Cromwell rose so high because he was able to perform the will of the King, despite his regular changes of mind and about-turns. He was multilingual, a superb diplomat, an ex-soldier, cloth merchant and banker, and he was intensely loyal. The sort of man any modern Prime Minister would mortgage his soul to have in his team, although I have a feeling that no modern Prime Minister would be able to keep his loyalty.
They really were the last tickets
Mantel brings this man vividly alive, full of contradictions and constantly on the look-out for ways and means to serve his master the king, while plotting to bring down his enemies, in the seething royal court. He inspires great loyalty and fear. Few get near to him, and he is greatly despised for his lowly birth. But he is a great manager in the absolute best sense of the word.
Both of these wonderful books have been turned into plays, and they’re being performed back-to-back by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford on Avon. Back in August, when I heard of it, I rushed online and managed to book the last two tickets for both, last Tuesday and Thursday. They really were the last tickets – standing only. We were very lucky. When the tickets went on sale for the transfer to London they sold out in minutes.
The different qualities of men
The theatre at Stratford has been completely rebuilt since we were there last, and it’s a bit like the Globe, built inside the shell of the previous building. There is a jutting stage and circular galleries, all built with oak, so nobody is too far away, although sometimes you need to juggle your head a bit to see past the pillars, especially when you’re standing. It was worth every penny, and has already become one of my most cherished memories.
It made me think of the different qualities of men (as in humans). Nowadays we tend to idolise the top man, the entrepreneur, who is in charge of everything and holds the fate of the whole enterprise in his or her hands. Alan Sugar, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg. But there is another kind of hero. Not the one who has the idea, but the one who makes it so.
He had a million people working for him
I’ve been trying to think of someone recent with the same sort of role as Cromwell, and the nearest I can come up with is Eisenhower, who had the job of turning D-Day from an impossible dream into a reality. He had a million people working for him, and he was working for the combined governments of the Allies. He had to juggle the day-to-day realities of logistics, and he also had to please his masters as they no doubt managed to change their minds rather a lot, all under an extraordinary regime of extreme secrecy.
What an amazing job Eisenhower did. Later on he became President, with far more power and decision-making responsibility, but I wonder which job he thought was easier. He would have been a modern man, with his loyalty to the cause of winning the war and defeating those who would return the world to the dark ages.
That’ll be Boxset Heaven
Cromwell lived in a simpler time, when the role of religion was far more entrenched, when kings ruled by divine right and one defied them at one’s peril, whatever their wishes. It was a dangerous time to live, and failure usually resulted in an unpleasant death. Cromwell himself was constantly in danger, and so far in the story he has managed to survive and stay ahead of his enemies, but I fear for his future.
If you have not read these books I heartily recommend them. They’re written with a beguiling style that draws you in and makes you wonder sometimes who is speaking and always what they’re really saying. Cromwell is an unforgettable character.
I’m sure they’ll hook up the London run at Cineworld later this year. I’ll be there too, and that’ll be an event worth seeing. Then there’s going to be a BBC series too, with Mark Rylance playing Cromwell. That’ll be Boxset Heaven.
If you have been, thank you for reading this.
Image: Oh Darling under CC BY 2.0
Image: Frick Collection under CC BY 2.0
Image: Tony Hisgett
Image: Public Domain under CC BY 2.0
Image: Google Art Project under CC BY 2.0
Image: Public Domain under CC BY 2.0
