by Vivienne gets far too invested in Henry Is Back
Okay so I need everyone to know I read the whole of Henry Is Back in one weekend and cancelled two plans to do it, which for me is basically a marriage proposal to a book.
I went in for the joke, obviously, king comes back as a comedian, hilarious, sold. What I did not expect was to actually fancy the voice of this book a bit, which is a strange sentence to type about Henry the Eighth but here we are. He’s arrogant, he’s completely wrong about most things, and somehow you’re rooting for him anyway by chapter three.
The bits with the modern dating app material had me actually screaming. A man who executed people for disagreeing with him, confused by being left on read. Iconic. Tragic. Very funny.
It’s rare a comedy book has this much heart under the jokes but it does, there’s a genuinely touching thread about wanting to be loved for who you are now rather than who you used to be, which, projecting slightly, feels very London right now.
If you want more from where this came from, the whole bit lives at Henry VIII’s stand-up diary and honestly you should just get the book too, I’ve already lent mine out twice.
