Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Backstory pick
One of the reasons I love Wolf Hall is the ensemble cast of ghosts Cromwell carries with him. They visit him and judge him, their presence ever looming. They can be a comfort, but the past weighs heavy and finds a way of creeping in. Sally

In Wolf Hall, one of our very best writers brings the opulent, brutal world of the Tudors to bloody, glittering life.
It is the backdrop to the rise and rise of Thomas Cromwell: lowborn boy, charmer, bully, master of deadly intrigue, and, finally, most powerful of Henry VIII’s coutiers.