We take a pause in our narrative to go back a few years to look at the childhoods, and backgrounds of two men from London- both called Thomas, both growing up in and around London (even if their experiences were very different) and both would go onto have huge impacts into the story of the city and the politics of Henry VIII.

This then is the story of Thomas More, and Thomas Cromwell, whose stories were to illuminate life in the city; its passions, its shadows, the smallness of it all, and also how experiencing it could shape a young mans life. This then is the tale of the two Toms…

Cover shows ‘A laughing boy’, by Guido Mazzoni, c.1498.