AlamyFiona Macdonald
Charlotte Brontë’s infatuated notes, Henry VIII’s lovesick doodles and the anguished scribbles of Nelson’s mistress: Fiona Macdonald picks eight love letters that offer a different slant on history.
England has long adopted the version of events informed by the Victorians’ biases and neuroses. But what is behind the flood of 21st-century retellings, including the new TV series The Mirror and the Light?
Zoe Williams
Tuesday 12 November 2024
The TV adaptation of the third of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall novels – The Mirror and the Light – arrived on Sunday on BBC One to rave reviews. “Six hours of magic” was the Guardian’s verdict. The series had been eagerly awaited, but nothing like as eagerly as the book itself. Mantel’s legions of fans waited eight years from the publication of Bring Up the Bodies for the finale to arrive in 2020.
