The Pretender : A Sunday Times Best Book of the Year

Published 02/04/2026 | Paperback / softback,
Description:

Wolf Hall meets Demon Copperhead in a sharply ambitious, brilliantly imagined and hugely entertaining story of intrigue, deceit, revenge and ambition**NAMED AS BEST HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE SUNDAY TIMES****PICKED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 BY THE GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, DAILY MAIL, AND THE I****SHORTLISTED FOR THE WINSTON GRAHAM HISTORICAL PRIZE**1483.

The English throne is in peril.

Peasant boy and pretender John Collan is faced with two options.

a) Become kingb) Die tryingWhat could possibly go wrong?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.

‘A bold and brilliant comedy of royal intrigue’ Guardian‘Funny, moving, filthy and original’ The Times‘So alive I felt Harkin might be a time traveller’ Maggie Shipstead‘I read it with the dedicated fervour of a kid discovering literature for the first time’ Yael van der Wouden‘The most enjoyable historical novel I’ve read in years’ Spectator‘Witty, poignant, wildly engaging, and with a huge heart’ Sarah Waters‘Like a Plantagenet Adrian Mole’ Jenny Colgan‘A rollicking account of a befuddled boy’s pillar-to-post existence as a political pawn’ New York Times‘The real deal – nimble, vibrant, playful, and daring’ Kiran Millwood Hargrave‘Ambitious, mischievous and brilliantly written’ Daily Mail‘I blazed through full of wonder and admiration’ Emma Stonex