THE MERMAID AND MRS HANCOCK – IMOGEN HERMES GOWAR (I scribbled this down as a quick review for a book-group gathering in Derbyshire).   In our book club the lovely lady sitting next to me admired the book – holding it this way and that and said, “Well, if I don’t like it I can turn it into one of those fancy decorative boxes, you know, the sort that look like a book. I could hollow out the middle. It is just so pretty. And so it is, the cover literally sparkles but it is also a pretty entertaining tale with a plot that never hesitates but moves on a…

I stand inside this book like no other. I am vulnerable, locked in time and yet breathing in history. I am standing behind doors, eavesdropping – petrified I will be found out. And yet I continue to spy, listen in, fascinated by the opulence and instability of the Tudor world. I am in love with Thomas Cromwell. Who wouldn’t be? The ultimate bad boy, still loyal and devoted to master and family. Kind to animals too!   But then Ms Mantel, I am an easy target – it is so easy to tempt a rebel like me away from the Orthodox history books. I now desire mentally and physically one…