While I like the genre in abstract, it takes a lot for historical fiction to engage me as much as Wolf Hall did.See, there's a fine line to be walked between ensuring that your reader knows who or what the historical figures and events in your novel actually are and resorting to tedious/awkward info dumping; perhaps a finer one still between choosing appropriate language and falling into the trap of caricatural faux-period-speak. I applaud Hilary Mantel for solving these problems by ignoring the genre staples completely and trusting her readers to have some knowledge of relevant history (not exactly a leap of faith - please, we're talking about Henry VIII's England). The result is a gripping, emotionally-charged piece of thoroughly modern political fiction, and beautifully written to boot.
