Thomas Cromwell

I've been reading the Hilary Mantel novels about Cromwell, and though I normally don't lose myself in history - this painting, and the ones of Henry VIII and his wives which are repeatedly mentioned in the books suddenly seemed to have a context they never had when I was a kid. So I sought them out in the National Portrait Gallery - to see them up close, and to think about them actually being painted with the King in front of them - that history seemed so magnificent. History never touched me at school, because they were just names from the past. But when a novelist takes those events and colours them with such a rich palette of intrigue, murder and corruption I am suddenly engaged.