Hilary Mantel and Diarmaid MacCulloch at Launde Abbey: Remembering Thomas Cromwell - Part 1

At Launde Abbey last month, Dame Hilary Mantel and Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch reflected on the life of Thomas Cromwell and his place in the Reformation. They were speaking at an event to mark the 900th anniversary of Launde Abbey, which Cromwell was fond of visiting. Both hardly need introducing. Mantel is, of course, the author of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, published by Fourth Estate, each of which were awarded the Booker Prize. The final book in the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, is due to be published next March. Professor MacCulloch’s Thomas Cromwell: A life, was published last year by Allen Lane, to critical acclaim. In this week’s Church Times, we publish an edited record of their fascinating discussion. And on the podcast we bring you even more of the event. In this episode, part 1, we hear presentations from each of them about how, as a novelist and historian respectively, they have approached the Putney boy who became Henry VIII’s chief minister. The event was introduced and moderated by the Bishop of Brixworth, the Rt Revd John Holbrook.