Jo Harkin was taking a break from writing her science fiction novel by reading a book about kings and queens. That’s when she came across the name Lambert Simnel in footnotes of British history. Simnel was a known pretender to Henry VII’s throne, but not much else is known about him.
It’s five years later and Harkin didn’t go back to the sci-fi work, but instead is releasing her novel, The Pretender, in which she imagines Simnel’s life as a pretender, filling in with fiction what written history might have left out.
Here’s our conversation with Jo Harkin.
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The Pretender by Jo Harkin was published by Knopf.
Marginalia was produced at KMUW Wichita and is part of the NPR Podcast Network.
Mark Statzer and Torin Andersen - engineers
Lu Anne Stephens & Haley Crowson - editors
Haley Crowson & Katie Lanning - producers
Karlee Cooper - marketing coordinator
Beth Golay - host
