‘At the very beginning of the twentieth century, Zola said, ‘’In my view you cannot claim to have really seen something till you have photographed it.’’ The act of photographing, at least for a moment, distinguishes its object and estranges it from its context . . . Every stroke of the pen releases a thousand pictures inside the writer’s head. This book has made some of them visible.’ Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel, Ben Miles, the stage’s celebrated Thomas Cromwell, and his brother, photographer George Miles, spent many years exploring the locations we know Thomas Cromwell visited and inhabited – Putney, Austin Friars, Wolf Hall, the Tower of London – to capture the faint traces of Tudor England and his extraordinary life. Accompanied with extracts from The Wolf Hall Trilogy, some of them published here for the first time, and including a stunning new essay by its author, these photographs reveal a world that is shadowy, frightening, sometimes whimsical – a portrait of a country in conversation with its past.

‘The present rubs up against the past, accompanied by excerpts from the novels, some taken from deleted scenes that, thrillingly for Mantel fans, have never before been released. Among other things, it is an interrogation of the way we interact with history; of the gaps in the record; its elusive nature; and its unexpected resonances with our contemporary lives’ Guardian

Gold title

• A fascinating insight into the world of Wolf Hall, visiting places Thomas Cromwell inhabited through photographs

• Perfect for fans of the books, tv show and stage show: the Wolf Hall trilogy has sold close to 2 million copies in HB and PB

• One of the authors, Ben Miles, played Cromwell in the RSC’s production of Wolf Hall, and is well-known for his roles in The Crown and the comedy Coupling

• Includes an essay by Hilary Mantel, exploring the connection between her writing, history & photography

• Unusual, dreamlike photographs reveal a London not usually seen

Competition: the;wolf hall;bring up the bodies;mirror and the light;mantel pieces;a place of greater safety;giving up the ghost;marriage plot;hamnet;to paradise;great circle;mayflies;silence of the girls. maggie o’farrell;hanya yanagihara;john lanchester;andrew o’hagan;madeline miller;maggie shipstead;pat barker