Anne Boleyn Files visitor and author, Louise Birkett, has emailed me with a synopsis of her new book “The Jenny Wilson Show (featuring Henry VIII and his six wives)” and a coupon to download this ebook for free from Smashwords.
The coupon is WE64H and it expires on 15 July 2011. It only applies to Smashwords and isn’t case-sensitive. You can download the book at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/70033 and if you don’t have an e-reader there are also options to download it so that you can read it on your computer.
The Jenny Wilson Show (featuring Henry VIII and his six wives) Synopsis
The digital revolution has meant that in the post-life instead of just watching TV the inhabitants can now create their own shows. First up is a chat show called The Jenny Wilson Show which aims to give Katherine Parr a new perspective on the greatest dilemma in her life: whether she should marry Henry. Instead of praying and hoping for the right answer, she can find out what Henry’s previous wives have to say on the subject of being married to him. We also find out whether his wives would have married him if they’d known their fates. Of course, this being post-life TV, nothing is straightforward – from the producer and director who cannot agree on anything, the inexperienced presenter who is quite shocked to find Henry flirting with her, the audience whose members have a bad heckling habit and the fact that PL-TV is somehow changing the post-life.
Additional info
Louise says: “It’s all meant to be very light-hearted but I have tried to be as historically accurate as I can be. Of course, when so much isn’t known and historians have competing theories, I’ve had to pick one. One instance would be that I think Alison Weir presents a good theory (based on a will) that Catherine Howard was even younger than is popularly supposed and was still a teenager at the time of her death. I did change one fact – although the end result was still the same – but that was to make it easier for twenty-first century readers to understand what was going on.
Anne Boleyn is a great character for any novelist. You get the impression that in life she was afraid of nothing until the final weeks of her life. In the post-life she can let rip and I had great fun researching sixteenth century insults for her to use!
There are a couple of things that might surprise some readers including Gabriel and Lucifer being best friends and that there can be such a thing as a failed guardian angel who speaks in Victorian street slang. They’re in there because I am trying to emphasise that this is a novel: I’ve had to make choices as to which historical theories to follow but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ve made the right choices therefore people shouldn’t take it as truth. The other reason is that none of us knows what the post-life holds, or even if there is one, so who knows what we might or might not find?
I decided I wanted to be a novelist aged ten and by the age of 11 had realised I needed to learn how to write, so I trained as a journalist. I’ve been earning a living as a writer for more than 20 years (ouch!) and won numerous awards for my non-fiction writing. My first piece of fiction was published two years ago and this is my first novel. I’m working on a sequel featuring Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots.”
Do take advantage of this offer to download it for free and make sure you use the coupon before the 15th July. Then please share your thoughts here as comments, Louise would love some feedback.
