indicating where a particular historical figure was on relevant dates. "You really need to know, where is the Duke of Suffolk at the moment? You can't have him in London if he's supposed to be somewhere else," she explained. In an interview with The Guardian, Mantel stated her aim to place the reader in "that time and that place, putting you into Henry's entourage. The essence of the thing is not to judge with hindsight, not to pass judgement from the lofty perch of the 21st century when we know what happened. It's to be there with them in that hunting party at Wolf Hall, moving forward with imperfect information and perhaps wrong expectations, but in any case moving forward into a future that is not pre-determined, but where chance and hazard will play a terrific role." Characters Wolf Hall includes a large cast of fictionalised historical persons. In addition to those already mentioned, prominent characters include: Stephen Gardiner, Master Secretary to King Henry Princess Mary, the daughter and only surviving child of Henry and Catherine, later Queen Mary I of England. Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Thomas Boleyn, father of Anne and Mary Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Anne's uncle Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury Jane Seymour, who later became the third of Henry's six wives Rafe Sadler, Thomas Cromwell's ward Title The title comes from the name of the Seymour family seat at Wolfhall or Wulfhall in Wiltshire; the title's allusion to the old Latin saying Homo homini lupus ("Man is wolf to man") serves as a constant reminder of the dangerously opportunistic nature of the world through which Cromwell navigates. Critical reaction In The Guardian, Christopher Tayler wrote, "Wolf Hall succeeds on its own terms and then some, both as a non-frothy historical novel and as a display of Mantel's extraordinary talent. Lyrically yet cleanly and tightly written, solidly imagined yet filled with spooky resonances, and very funny at times, it's not like much else in contemporary British fiction. A sequel is apparently in the works, and it's not the least of Mantel's achievements that the reader finishes this 650-page book wanting more." Susan Bassnett, in Times Higher Education, wrote in a rare negative review, "dreadfully badly written... Mantel just wrote and wrote and wrote. I have yet to meet anyone outside the Booker panel who managed to get to the end of this tedious tome.