I know Wolf Hall is supposed to be the 2010 Man Booker Prize winner and indeed the covers of the book are literally inundated with the lavish praises of a dozen respected reviews but...gosh...Super-Caveman say this book hard to read :/
Ok the upside first. Wolf Hall is undoubtedly historical fiction of the highest calibre. Mantel reconstructs English history under the reign of Henry VIII (Henry Tudor) and brilliantly fleshes out the drama and intrigue of the King's court, especially the events that surrounded what is perhaps the most (in)famous divorce in history (yes Brad and Jenn too, get over it), and the birth of the Anglican Church as a result. I always appreciate good research and Mantel has obviously bothered to do her homework, that of everybody around her, and probably the teacher's notes too. Even better she takes the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, a historically much maligned figure, and casts him in if not a more forgiving, then certainly a more human light.
Unfortunately the cast of characters in such a monumental work is just mind-boggling and I had to keep flipping back to the 5-page list of them in front. It doesn't help either that every other person in 16th Century England seems to have been named Thomas or Mary, although that's hardly Mantel's fault. What is her fault though is her seeming reluctance to use nouns in the book. Every male character is simply referred to as "he" and every female "she", leaving the reader sometimes completely bamboozled as to which "he" is "he" and which "she" is "she" and what on earth are they getting up to.
Good book overall but you're going to need persistence.
