# The Pretender

By Jo Harkin

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/the-pretender-0b7f96da/

John Collan is taken from farm life to learn how to be a claimant to England's throne. Adults train him to present himself as Edward, Earl of Warwick, taking him through Oxford, Burgundy and Ireland. Each new guardian has plans for the boy, while his own identity remains uncertain.

## What makes it funny?

Before he can trouble a king, the future claimant has an aggressive farm goat to contend with. Grand surroundings don't make him feel grander: entering a palace, he likens himself to an overturned beetle. His small humiliations keep interrupting the royal story adults are constructing for him.

### The comedy at work

Harkin measures courtly status against a confused boy's experience of it. Noble daughters resemble frantic trapped animals; elaborate education sits beside the coarse history lessons he heard in his village. The language keeps exposing how awkward it is to manufacture a prince.

### Try this if…

Court intrigue seen from the position of a bewildered outsider gives this its particular appeal. Earthy language and comic attacks on rank accompany questions about who gets to name a person and decide his future.

### Good to know

This fictional account draws on the fifteenth-century claimant Lambert Simnel. Its bawdy historical material includes sexual and bodily jokes; violence, tragedy and strong language also feature.

## What to expect

- Genre: Contemporary & literary · Historical
- Kind of humor: Dark comedy · Satire · Wordplay
- The atmosphere: Irreverent
- Format: Novel
- Length: 496 pages
- Published: 2025

## A few distinguishing details

- A farm boy is trained to perform a royal identity
- An aspiring king's first opponent is a goat

## Sources & further reading

- Publisher: [Penguin Random House lists The Pretender by Jo Harkin as a 496-page paperback (ISBN 9780593689165) and shows a separate audiobook download at 14 hours 35 minutes without an Unabridged designation.](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/763804/the-pretender-by-jo-harkin)
- Review: [Historical Novel Society review](https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/the-pretender)
- Publisher: [Publisher and author interview](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/763804/the-pretender-by-jo-harkin)
- Review: [Kirkus review](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jo-harkin/the-pretender-2)