Wolf Hall meets Demon Copperhead in a sharply ambitious, brilliantly imagined and hugely entertaining story of intrigue, deceit, revenge and ambition

‘The Pretender has everything- history richly drawn, amazing characterisation, humour, wit, vigour and bravery. It’s magnificent’ Emma Stonex
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Kill the pretender. Do not let it be known that there was a pretender to kill.
The year is 1480 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.

Jo Harkin studied literature at university. She daydreamed her way through various jobs in her twenties before becoming a full-time writer. Her debut novel Tell Me an Ending was a New York Times book of the year. She lives in Berkshire, England.