It concerns the events of the French Revolution, focusing on the lives of Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Maximilien Robespierre from their childhood through the execution of the Dantonists, and also featuring hundreds of other historical figures.

“I wrote a letter to an agent saying would you look at my book, it’s about the French Revolution, it’s not a historical romance, and the letter came back saying, we do not take historical romances [...] because of the expectations surrounding the words ‘French Revolution’ ― that it was bound to be about ladies with high hair.

[2] A Place of Greater Safety won the Sunday Express Book of the Year award.

The New York Times praised Mantel, but not the book, wondering if "more novel and less history might not better suit this author's unmistakable talent.

"[3] In The Guardian, historian Kate Williams named the book her favorite of Mantel's novels.