Set in the tumultuous period of the Tudors’ ascent, The Pretender brings to life the little-known story of Lambert Simnel. From humble beginnings as a peasant boy, Lambert’s life takes an astonishing turn when, at just ten years old, he becomes a claimant to the English throne as one of the last of the Plantagenet line. As Lambert navigates the treacherous waters of royal intrigue and court life, complex themes of identity, power, and destiny unfold, weaving a tapestry of ambition and survival in a world where the stakes couldn’t be higher.
In 1480 John Collan’s greatest anxiety is how to circumvent the village’s devil goat on his way to collect water. But the arrival of a well-dressed stranger from London upends his life forever: John is not John Collan, not the son of Will Collan but Lambert Simnel, the son of the long-deceased Duke of Clarence, and has been hidden in the countryside after a brotherly rift over the crown—and because Richard III has a habit of disappearing his nephews.
Removed from his humble origins and sent to Oxford to be educated in a manner befitting the throne’s rightful heir, Lambert is put into play by his masters. He learns the rules of etiquette in Burgundy and the machinations of the court in Ireland, where he encounters the intractable Joan, the delightfully strong-willed and manipulative daughter of his Irish patrons, a girl imbued with both extraordinary political savvy and occasional murderous tendencies. Joan has two paths available to her—marry or become a nun. Lambert’s choices are similarly stark: he will either become king or die in battle. Together they form an alliance that will change the fate of the English monarchy.
Inspired by a footnote to history—the true story of the little-known Simnel, who was a figurehead of the 1487 Yorkist rebellion and ended up working as a spy in the court of King Henry VII—The Pretender is historical fiction at its finest, a gripping, exuberant, rollicking portrait of British monarchy and life within the court, with a cast of unforgettable heroes and villains drawn from fifteenth-century England. A masterful new work from a major new author.
Don't just take our word for it...
“The Pretender is a vivid, transporting feat of imagination and storytelling, so alive I felt Jo Harkin might be a time traveler.”
– Maggie Shipstead, author of Great Circle
“What Jo Harkin has accomplished in The Pretender left me awestruck on every page. I had no idea that a medieval historical novel could be this wickedly funny, this timely and timeless. A work of genius, a wellspring of laughter and sorrow, a feat of time-travel, and a feast of language.”
– Karen Russell, author of The Antidote
“I blazed through full of wonder and admiration… The writing is searingly confident, the sense of time and place dizzyingly good, the dialogue ribald and the description elegant… I loved every single page… The Pretender has everything: history richly drawn, amazing characterization, humor, wit, vigor, and bravery. It’s magnificent.”
– Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters
Taste the very first page
…Was this the first thing he wrote of his own?
I am John Collan
today in the yere 1483 I will defeat the goat.
In the name of honnour and glory to god highest & for reson that it knocked me in the mud again today
& has TRODDEN churlishly over my back
has despoiled
!
an insult that cannot be borne.
John has made a plan of battle. According to the ancient art of the famous Vegetius, who set out in his book how the Roman Empire toppled and suborned all enemies. According to his brother Tom.
Tom did not read that book, but he told John what he was told was in it.
Tom had a favorite military stratagem of his own. This was the goose trap. He’d stand in front of something and call, Little John! Oh, little Johnny John John! You are a pink pig’s arsehole, a hairy ball sack, a shitbeetle—and then, when John, sore wroth, would charge at him, Tom would dodge and John would run into that thing he was standing in front of, which was usually a cow shit. And then Tom would shout: Goose trap!
Now Tom is gone to be an apprentice, and John is goose no longer.
John is a general.
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