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The Beheading Game

Disgraced. Beheaded. And out for revenge . . .

We all know what happened to Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn. But what if she woke up the day after her execution and took it upon herself to seek justice?

The Beheading Game begins in the hours after Anne Boleyn’s beheading, when she wakes to find herself unceremoniously in an arrow chest, her head wrapped in linen at her knees. Discarded by King Henry VIII for not being able to give him a male heir, reviled by Cromwell for being too smart for her own good, and executed based on trumped-up charges, Anne escapes the tower, sews her head back on, and sets out on a quest for vengeance.

Traveling in the guise of a commoner, with the help of a prostitute, Anne navigates the London streets she never before walked and soon realizes how little she knew about life in the real world. The Beheading Game is an epic journey through the wilds of royal history and a prescient reminder that 'mouthy' women have always been punished. Finally one of history’s most maligned women has a chance to tell her side of the story.

‘Magic, romance, revenge, and an utterly irresistible heroine – this book is an instant classic’ Lev Grossman, author of The Bright Sword
Magic, romance, revenge, and an utterly irresistible heroine - this book is an instant classic
Lev Grossman, author of BRIGHT SWORD

About Rebecca Lehmann

Rebecca Lehmann is an award-winning poet and essayist. She has an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Maytag Fellow. Her collections include Between the Crackups, Ringer, which won the AWP Donald Hall Prize collection, and The Sweating Sickness. Her writing has appeared in American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, NPR’s The Slowdown, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day. She lives in Indiana with her family, where she is an associate professor of English and Gender and Women’s Studies at Saint Mary’s College
Details
  • Imprint: Harvill Secker
  • ISBN: 9781787305687
  • Length: 336 pages
  • Price: £16.99