"It's not just the past you think of as you ride these fields. It's what's latent in the soil, what's breeding. It's the days to come. The wars unfought. The injuries and deaths that, like seeds, the soil of England is keeping warm."

Bring Up the Bodies tells the story of Anne Boleyn's epic demise, as experienced through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell.

I loved this book as much as I loved Wolf Hall. Mantel's writing is transportive and her research impeccable as she recreates the kill-or-be-killed experience of surviving life in 16th century England. She makes Cromwell such a human while Queen Anne remains a total mystery! Talk about the power of point of view.

This story provides deep insight into a barbaric, dishonest, and misogynistic time. AKA history. Once Henry VIII severs his country from Catholicism in order to sink his teeth into what he wants, he blames the woman when things don't go right. Simply because she did not have a son, Anne Boleyn was branded a witch and adulteress. Her tale is one of the most famous examples of gaslighting and slut shaming in modern history.

But at the end of the day, dontcha wanna know if Elizabeth I was Henry's daughter or not?