Hilary Mantel on Wolf Hall

Claire Armitstead talks to the novelist about her stunning reinvention of Tudor history, seen through Thomas Cromwell's eyes

As Henry VIII's chief fixer during the ascendancy of Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell has had a bad press from historians. Hilary Mantel reveals why she felt compelled to put him at the centre of her brilliant new novel, Wolf Hall, relegating the traditionally saintly Thomas More to a bit part as bad husband and political failure.

She explains why she was drawn to "the great Tudor soap opera" and how she set about recreating the sights, smells and textures that lay behind the patina of court portraiture that is so familiar to us today.