Review by Choice Review
The phenomenal success of the Booker Award-winning novels of Hilary Mantel about Thomas Cromwell (Wolf Hall, 2009, and Bring up the Bodies, 2012) and their dramatization for stage and television has led to renewed interest in the career and life of the English statesman. Borman recounts what little is known of the base-born Cromwell before his career in the household of Cardinal Wolsey, whom he served as legal advisor and factotum. His work included the foundation of what became Ipswich School and Cardinal College (later Christ Church), Oxford. Cromwell survived Wolsey's fall to become the ruthless architect of Henry VIII's break with Rome and master of the constitutional revolution that established the king as Supreme Head of the Church. Borman misreads Cromwell's personal commitment to Protestantism, and she has little to say about the larger European religious scene--something that is critical to understanding both the shifting political alliances and the tortuous course of Tudor policy in the 1530s. The author is at her best when describing how Cromwell detached himself from Anne Boleyn and then orchestrated her destruction. Fittingly, Cromwell's own fall from power and execution in 1540 was largely the result of his efforts in acquiring a new queen, Anne of Cleves. Summing Up: Recommended. Public and undergraduate collections. --Douglas R. Bisson, Belmont University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by New York Times Review
It seems to be rehabilitation time for Thomas Cromwell. The by no means unsympathetic central character in Hilary Mantel's Man Booker-winning novels "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies," he is also the subject of this biography by the chief executive of Britain's Heritage Education Trust. Borman's Cromwell, like Mantel's, is a subtle, nuanced figure, but as a historian Borman has no novelist's license to improvise. Relying instead on the recorded documentation of the time, mostly in the form of letters and reminiscences, she concludes that in his professional life Cromwell may have been dastardly and ambitious but that in his personal life he was the opposite, "a loving husband and father, a devoted friend and a tireless helper of the poor, widows and others in distress." All of which availed him nothing when his luck ran out. In the court of Henry VIII, "an arena ridden with intrigue, betrayal, treachery and deceit," it was an easy stop to the executioner's block. Cromwell was not widely mourned, except by his family and, paradoxically, by Henry, who was "heard oftentymes to saye, that nowe he lacked his Cromwell." Which reveals a lot about Henry's character and Cromwell's talents, and how and why this odd couple so thoroughly changed England.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 25, 2015]
Review by Booklist Review
Hilary Mantel's fictional blockbusters Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012) have reinvigorated interest in Thomas Cromwell. Penning a new biography of Cromwell, Borman follows the current trend, revising the common historical view of her subject as a cunningly cruel power broker. The portrait she paints of this complex man, who rose from humble origins to extraordinary and ultimately untenable heights, is more subtly nuanced. Though no one can deny Cromwell's ruthless lust for power, she puts it into perspective, analyzing both his personal and public relationships and viewing his actions and motivations through a sixteenth-century lens. An ambitious man of his time and place, he nevertheless intimately enjoyed a rich and varied domestic life. Neglecting neither the public persona nor the private man, Borman provides an insightful biography of a much-maligned historical figure.--Flanagan, Margaret Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Borman, CEO of the U.K. Heritage Education Trust and joint chief curator of the British historic royal palaces, commendably delves into primary and secondary sources in piecing together the remarkable life of a "commoner who had risen far beyond his rightful station in life" to become the king's chief minister. Best known for engineering the fall of Anne Boleyn and easing the way for the Protestant Reformation in England, Thomas Cromwell remains in these pages just as enigmatic as he has always been to historians. Some of Borman's conclusions are based on flimsy evidence, and she relies too much on accounts written by those with obvious political agendas. However, she makes a strong argument that Cromwell's fall from power was engineered by elites who despised him for being a commoner upstart, especially when she points out an incident often overlooked by historians: Cromwell arranged for his son to marry Queen Jane Seymour's sister. Considering the brutality the Tudors inflicted on those whom they perceived as overstepping their bounds, the perception that Cromwell did not know his place, compounded by his arranging Henry's short-lived marriage with Anne of Cleves, sealed his fate. Agent: Jason Bartholomew, Hodder & Stoughton (U.K.). (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The past decade has provided a bumper crop of material on Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540), with Hilary Mantel's Booker-winning novels and no less than three biographies that provide various evaluations and reestimations of Henry VIII's most famous (and notorious) minister. Borman (Elizabeth's Women) pens a new biography that falls squarely in the reestimation camp, but while the author is on the side of Cromwell's sympathizers, she resists the urge to shy away completely from his more ruthless deeds. The dedication to her subject is apparent, as she delves into every aspect of Cromwell's life and career his early days in Italy, his political beginnings under Cardinal Wolsey, and his meteoric rise and fall at Henry VIII's court in an attempt to uncover the person behind the public facade. Unfortunately, concrete evidence for Cromwell's thoughts is somewhat sparse, necessitating some guesswork on Borman's part and an excellent portrait of Cromwell the statesman, but a murky one of Cromwell the man. VERDICT Though it breaks little new ground, Borman's chronicle is a thorough and pleasantly readable study, much in line with John Schofield's The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell. [See Prepub Alert, 7/21/14.] Kathleen McCallister, Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A mildly revisionist biography of Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540).Long reviled as the evil genius who secured Henry VIII's divorce from Catharine of Aragon and oversaw the looting of Catholic monasteries, Cromwell received spectacular rehabilitation in Hilary Mantel's novel Wolf Hall (2009) and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies (2012). Agreeing that Mantel was onto something, Borman (Queen of the Conqueror: The Life of Matilda, Wife of William I, 2012, etc.), joint chief curator of historic royal palaces and chief executive of Britain's Heritage Education Trust, writes an engrossing biography of a ruthless man who rose and fell in the service of a ruthless king, a path followed by dozens close to Henry. Son of a blacksmith, Cromwell traveled and worked on the continent as a young man. At age 30, as a successful London merchant and lawyer, he entered the household of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII's leading adviser, and prospered. When Henry turned against Wolsey in 1529 (largely due to his reluctance to promote the king's divorce), Cromwell stepped in. Fiercely dedicated to fulfilling Henry's desires, Cromwell switched from appeals to the pope to manipulating Parliament and browbeating England's clerical establishment. After years of political arm-twisting, he succeeded. Henry married Anne Boleyn and, far more significant, replaced the pope as head of the English church. Cromwell presided over the dissolution of church property, a windfall for the king, and successfully distanced himself from Anne as she fell from favor. His luck and life ran out in 1540 when enemies took advantage of Henry's growing conservatism in matters of religious doctrine (he had less interest than Cromwell in Protestant reforms) and he disastrously supported Henry's marriage to Anne of Cleves. A fine rags-to-riches-to-executioner's-block story of a major figure of the English Reformation. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
