Isla Campbell reviews a comedy novel about a very different kind of monarch
Given that I spend most of my working life covering the actual Royal Family, I approached Henry Is Back with a fairly specific set of expectations about how it would handle monarchy and comedy together. It exceeded them.
The novel’s central joke, Henry VIII reincarnated as a working stand-up comedian, gives the book real material to work with on questions of image, legacy, and public forgiveness that feel surprisingly current given the source material’s five hundred year head start. The chapter involving a modern royal correspondent trying to interview him is a particular highlight, sharply written and genuinely funny.
It never loses sight of being a comedy first, which is exactly right, but there’s real thought under the jokes about how history quietly rehabilitates men who did terrible things as long as they’re entertaining enough about it.
A genuinely strong, well constructed comic novel.
The ongoing material this grew from continues at Henry VIII’s stand-up diary, and the book is well worth the read.
