WINNER OF THE 2009 MAN BOOKER PRIZE

WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE and the NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION and the COSTA NOVEL AWARD

Now the inspiration for a BBC mini-series, starring Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis, and directed by Peter Kosminsky

England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but he has no male heir. Despite opposition from the pope and most of Europe, he is determined to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The quest for the king's freedom destroys his brilliant adviser, Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum and a deadlock. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. A political genius, a briber, a bully and a charmer, Cromwell has broken all the rules of a rigid society in his ascent to power, and he is preparing to break some more. Pitting himself against parliament, the political establishment and the papacy, he is prepared to reshape England to his own and Henry's desires.