The Mirror and the Light​

Book 3 of the Wolf Hall Trilogy

Hilary Mantel

Illustrated by Igor & Marina

Afterword by Ben Miles

First Printing

Complete Hilary Mantel’s award-winning trilogy with The Mirror and the Light. With Igor & Marina returning to deliver their finest illustrations of the Folio series, and an insightful afterword by Ben Miles — Mantel’s close collaborator and stage adaptor — this edition vividly brings to life the gripping conclusion of Thomas Cromwell’s epic tale.​

£105.00
£105.00
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Editor’s Note
  1. Sophia Schoepfer, Editor

The Mirror and the Light concludes one of the great classics of the modern age, the Wolf Hall Trilogy. This is an opulent edition, befitting a royal court, and Igor & Marina's intricate sketches perfectly complement Mantel's rich observational style. To mark the close of this epic trilogy, actor and playwright Ben Miles has written an afterword that provides a fascinating insight into the woman behind the genius.

‘Being familiar with Mantel's novels, as well as their BBC adaptations, we felt a strong connection to the material. What made the project even more meaningful was Hilary Mantel’s involvement in the early stages. Her thoughts on the first book helped shape our vision. And after her untimely passing, there was this sense of creating with her in mind — hoping that our work would live up to her high standards. It was both a privilege and a responsibility.’
  1. Igor & Marina, Illustrators

Bound in printed and blocked cloth ​

Set in Adobe Caslon ​

776 pages ​

Colour frontispiece and 11 full-page mono drawings with gold borders, including one double-page spread ​

2 family trees ​

Ribbon Marker ​

3 gilded edges ​

Gold slipcase ​

Sized at 10˝ x 6¾˝

In this final instalment of Hilary Mantel's extraordinary trilogy, Thomas Cromwell stands at the height of his power, following the fall of Anne Boleyn. As King Henry VIII’s most trusted advisor, Cromwell is at the centre of the court's dangerous intrigues, deftly managing the kingdom's affairs while navigating a web of alliances and rivalries. But with every triumph comes the shadow of risk, and Cromwell finds himself increasingly isolated as the king’s favour shifts. Mantel brilliantly captures the tension and uncertainty of Cromwell’s final years, drawing the reader into a world where even the most powerful can face their downfall. This concluding chapter of Cromwell’s story is a masterful exploration of ambition, loyalty, and the perilous nature of power.​

About Dame Hilary Mantel

British writer Dame Hilary Mantel was brought up in Derbyshire and Cheshire. She graduated in law from the University of Sheffield and later spent several years living in Jeddah and Botswana. She was the first woman to win the Booker Prize twice, firstly for her fictional account of Thomas Cromwell’s ascent to power, Wolf Hall, (2009, Folio 2022) and secondly for its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies (2012, Folio 2023). The third book in her trilogy, The Mirror and the Light (2020, Folio 2024), was longlisted in 2020. The trilogy won Mantel worldwide renown, but long before her immersion in the world of Tudor England, she was regarded as one of Britain’s finest novelists, short story writers and cultural critics. With A Place of Greater Safety (1992) she first explored the potential of historical fiction, but she has ranged widely, publishing Gothic novels (Beyond Black, 2005) and a book set in contemporary Saudi Arabia, for example. Her many awards include the Walter Scott Prize, a National Book Critics Circle Award and the British Academy President’s Medal. Mantel’s most recent book, Mantel Pieces (2020), collects her remarkable and incisive essays published in the London Review of Books over three decades. 

About Ben Miles

Ben Miles is an actor whose association with Thomas Cromwell began in 2013, playing him in the stage adaptations of Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies. In 2020, he co-wrote the stage adaptation of The Mirror And The Light with Hilary Mantel, appearing again as Cromwell in the play the following year.

About Igor & Marina

Igor & Marina are a husband-and-wife team of artists and designers, Igor Kozlovsky and Marina Sharapova. Born in Russia, they were trained at the Mukhina Academy of Art and Design in St Petersburg and have lived in the United States since 1997; at present they are based in Chicago and represented by galleries in New York, San Francisco and London. Their work is deeply influenced by European Old Master painting and the Russian icon tradition; it often combines delicately rendered figures with heavily patterned and richly coloured abstract backgrounds. Igor & Marina have organised solo exhibitions across the United States and participated in group shows worldwide.

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