The Pretender
- Author Jo Harkin
- Narrator John Hollingworth
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date 24 April 2025
- Run Time 14 hours and 38 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Historical fiction, Narrative theme: Coming of age.
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What to expect
Bloomsbury presents The Pretender by Jo Harkin, read by John Hollingworth.
Wolf Hall meets Demon Copperhead in a sharply ambitious, brilliantly imagined and hugely entertaining story of intrigue, deceit, revenge and ambition
‘A vivid, transporting feat of imagination’ Maggie Shipstead
‘Witty, poignant, wildly engaging, and with a huge heart - I loved it’ Sarah Waters
‘Brilliantly buoyant, clever, funny, original, vivid, witty’ Joanna Quinn
‘The Pretender has everything: history richly drawn, amazing characterisation, humour, wit, vigour and bravery’ Emma Stonex
‘I found myself laughing out loud at the sheer brilliance of Harkin’s sentences’ Victoria MacKenzie
________________________________________
Kill the pretender. Do not let it be known that there was a pretender to kill.
The year is 1483 and England is in peril. The much-despised Richard III is not long for the throne, and the man who will become Henry VII stands poised to snatch the crown for himself. But for twelve-year-old John Collan, living in a remote village with his widowed father, these matters seem far away.
But history has other plans for John.
Stolen from his family, exiled – first to Oxford, then to Burgundy, and then Ireland – and apprenticed to a series of unscrupulous political operators, he finds himself groomed for power; not as John Collan, but as Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick – and rightful heir to the throne.
Far from home at the Irish court, preparing for a war that will see him become king or die trying, John has just his wits – and the slippery counsel of his host’s daughter, the unconventional Joan – to navigate the choppy waters ahead.
Seething with revenge and machination, sparkling with wit and humanity, and roaring with adventure and bravado, The Pretender is the captivating true story of a young man tossed into the chaos of history as it happens.
‘Wickedly funny… A work of genius, a wellspring of laughter and sorrow, a feat of time travel, and a feast of language' Karen Russell
‘Raw, beautiful and true ... I loved it’ Leah Redmond Chang
‘An absolute thumper … Funny and filthy and brave and brilliant’ Marianne Levy
‘Superb, exhilarating and heartbreaking’ Linda Porter
‘I couldn't put it down’ Tracy Borman
Wolf Hall meets Demon Copperhead in a sharply ambitious, brilliantly imagined and hugely entertaining story of intrigue, deceit, revenge and ambition
‘A vivid, transporting feat of imagination’ Maggie Shipstead
‘Witty, poignant, wildly engaging, and with a huge heart - I loved it’ Sarah Waters
‘Brilliantly buoyant, clever, funny, original, vivid, witty’ Joanna Quinn
‘The Pretender has everything: history richly drawn, amazing characterisation, humour, wit, vigour and bravery’ Emma Stonex
‘I found myself laughing out loud at the sheer brilliance of Harkin’s sentences’ Victoria MacKenzie
________________________________________
Kill the pretender. Do not let it be known that there was a pretender to kill.
The year is 1483 and England is in peril. The much-despised Richard III is not long for the throne, and the man who will become Henry VII stands poised to snatch the crown for himself. But for twelve-year-old John Collan, living in a remote village with his widowed father, these matters seem far away.
But history has other plans for John.
Stolen from his family, exiled – first to Oxford, then to Burgundy, and then Ireland – and apprenticed to a series of unscrupulous political operators, he finds himself groomed for power; not as John Collan, but as Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick – and rightful heir to the throne.
Far from home at the Irish court, preparing for a war that will see him become king or die trying, John has just his wits – and the slippery counsel of his host’s daughter, the unconventional Joan – to navigate the choppy waters ahead.
Seething with revenge and machination, sparkling with wit and humanity, and roaring with adventure and bravado, The Pretender is the captivating true story of a young man tossed into the chaos of history as it happens.
‘Wickedly funny… A work of genius, a wellspring of laughter and sorrow, a feat of time travel, and a feast of language' Karen Russell
‘Raw, beautiful and true ... I loved it’ Leah Redmond Chang
‘An absolute thumper … Funny and filthy and brave and brilliant’ Marianne Levy
‘Superb, exhilarating and heartbreaking’ Linda Porter
‘I couldn't put it down’ Tracy Borman
Critics Review
The Pretender is a vivid, transporting feat of imagination and storytelling, so alive I felt Jo Harkin might be a time traveller
Clever and wildly entertaining
A gripping study of power steeped in both atmosphere and playful wit
There’s much fun to be had in Harkin’s riotous, mischievous take on a thorny patch in English history ... Funny and furiously imaginative, this is a brilliant debut
The Pretender had me under its spell from the very first page. I read it with the dedicated fervour of a kid discovering literature for the first time - the magic of it, the way it transports you, the way you don’t want to say goodbye to the pages as you turn them. I took it with me everywhere for months, I read it on trains and buses and laughed and cried in public many times. A genuinely brilliant voice. I will recommend this to everyone for years to come: to hear what they think, to enrich their lives, and so that they in turn can understand something about me that can only be communicated through the passing on of a good book
Billed as “Demon Copperhead meets Wolf Hall”, this historical rollercoaster has a charm all of its own ... A brainy, heartfelt delight
Funny and it’s devastating. I’m having a fantastic time reading it.
The Pretender is an absolute delight, at turns funny, moving, filthy and original. Simnel might not win the English crown, but this is a frontrunner for historical fiction book of the year
Fantastically accomplished ... A bold and brilliant comedy of royal intrigue ... There’s a deep love for literature here which elevates The Pretender above other novels about this period
Ambitious, mischievous and brilliantly written, her boldly drawn characters and their reckless, ruthless aspirations make for a hugely entertaining read
Touching and hilarious ... Harkin has immense sympathy for John as he tries to figure out who he really is
Ambitious, mischievous and well-written, Harkin's stand-out second novel's boldly drawn characters and their ruthless aspirations make for an entertaining read
Harkin has loosely based this sparklingly original historical novel on the real life of Lambert Simnel, a pretender to the throne during the early years of the reign of Henry VII, and it’s funny, moving, and filthy in equal measure
An ordinary boy becomes a royal pawn in this gripping 15th-century political drama. The Pretender is smart historical fiction with the emotional pull of Demon Copperhead and the scale of Wolf Hall
Like a Plantagenet Adrian Mole ... Funny, touching, brilliant, unputdownable
A magnificent imagining ... There is an extraordinary energy about this novel ... Simnel is a glorious creation ... This is the most enjoyable historical novel I’ve read in years
When a novel is described as Wolf Hall meets Demon Copperhead, you pay attention. Remarkably, The Pretender also lives up to that impossible comparison. This 15th century tale’s rich yarn takes in the life of the ordinary young man who is groomed for power and ends up as heir to the throne
When a novel is described as Wolf Hall meets Demon Copperhead, you pay attention. Remarkably, The Pretender also lives up to that impossible comparison
A brilliantly buoyant, funny, clever novel ... Takes us from rural Oxfordshire to the great palaces of Europe, showing us how history is shaped by strong characters and convincing lies, while Jo Harkin’s writing is consistently original, vivid, and witty. It’s Glorious Exploits meets Wolf Hall - and I completely loved it
A brilliant piece of historical storytelling that’s also gorgeously irreverent, contemporary and fun. Witty, poignant, wildly engaging, and with a huge heart - I loved it
A novel full of laugh out loud moments ... Harkin's exuberant novel brings to life one of the stranger notes in late-medieval history ... Fantastically irreverent ... This sympathetic and brilliantly executed book beguiles to the very end
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 characterisation, humour, wit, vigour and bravery. It's magnificent
Jo Harkin mixes fact and fiction for this deliciously heady romp that sparkles with witty verbiage. It also features – at its very core – a love story for the ages
A ripping adventure
This tale of power, loyalty and treachery is told with vim and verve - I found myself laughing out loud at the sheer brilliance of Harkin's sentences. A book that's intelligent, bawdy, vivid and profound, I enjoyed it so much. A masterful novel
“Wolf Hall meets Demon Copperhead” is an impressive billing for a first-time novelist, but The Pretender ... justifies it ... An auspicious venture into fictionalised history ... Loosely based on the real-life royal pretender Lambert Simnel,The Pretender explores the machinations of the wars of the roses with authority, bringing a frightening world to life
The Pretender is the real deal - nimble, vibrant, playful, and daring. It pulses with life. I loved it
Harkin brings Lambert to vivid life in her novel, and it’s a must read for historical fiction fans
Harkin writes with a raw energy, in clear, and often amusing prose - from the muck of the countryside and battles with a belligerent goat to the court of Henry VII, it feels like a full immersion in the 1400s ... If you liked Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall series, you will love this beautifully written read
For fans of Hilary Mantel: a bawdy work of medieval historical fiction that tells the little-known story of Lambert Simnel, a peasant boy who, at 10 years old, discovers he is the secret heir to Richard III’s throne
Raw, beautiful and true ... I loved it
This Tudor-era historical novel is drawing comparisons to Wolf Hall
One of those books you read and know you’ll get kind of overly passionate about and weird everyone out … An absolute thumper … It’s fantastic. It’s funny and filthy and brave and brilliant. And it feels so very true … It’s just astonishing how immersive this world is, how quickly and deeply I found myself in the past. It’s twisty and compelling, with a wickedly subversive streak and a hearo who is so full of heart. I never wanted it to end
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
With The Pretender, Jo Harkin transports readers all the way back to the 15th century ... This gripping story follows a young man, a puppet for the Tudor detractors, who is thrust into the world of aristocracy—and all the dangers and deceit that come with it
Jo Harkin is a unique voice. In this superb imagining of the life of the Pretender, Lambert Simnel, she takes us to the heart of early Tudor England. At turns exhilarating and heartbreaking, it is a wonderful historical novel
This captivating novel casts dramatic new light on the turbulent world of the first Tudor king and those who plotted to bring him down. At its heart is a human story that has been waiting to be told for centuries. I couldn't put it down
Praise for Jo Harkin: Pure pleasure
Extraordinary, gripping, inventive ... I'll never forget it
Incredibly nicely written ... Jo Harkin writes really well about human beings. I really enjoyed it
Sharply, beautifully written
Intriguing, frightening, witty and humane
Suspenseful, richly imagined, and brimming with compassion ... A feat of ingenious, intricate world-building
A rollicking account of a befuddled boy’s pillar-to-post existence as a political pawn
Contains some of the most authentic writing in a child’s voice I’ve ever read. And while the book is a deeply engaging read, it underlines profoundly the experience of those who must try to forge and keep their identity without agency, caught in the powerful maw of history
An ordinary boy becomes a royal pawn in this gripping 15th-century political drama. The Pretender is smart historical fiction with the emotional pull of Demon Copperhead and the scale of Wolf Hall
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