Bring up the Bodies - 2012 Man Booker Winner Announced

The 2012 Man Booker Prize has been won by Hilary Mantel for her novel Bring up the Bodies, the sequel to Wolf Hall which won the prize in 2009. The book is about Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VIII and concentrates on the nine month period in which Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn, is arrested, tried and executed for treason. The final book in the trilogy, called The Mirror and the Light, will continue Cromwell's story until his execution in 1540 and is not expected to be published until 2015. This is the first time in Man Booker history that the £50,000 prize has been awarded for a direct sequel. Peter Stothard, chair of the judges, described Mantel as the “greatest modern English prose writer” and told reporters that she had rewritten the art of historical fiction.