King Henry’s royal right of reply

HENRY VIII: THE HEART AND THE CROWN by Alison Weir

(Headline £25, 640pp) AFTER spinning out the stories of Henry VIII’s queens over the course of six meticulously researched novels, Weir gives Harry (as he’s affectionately known here) a very readable royal right of reply.

Beginning with his boisterous boyhood, she charts the progress of a changeable monarch, from the hot-tempered, but kind-hearted, teenager to the bitter, capricious tyrant, whose romantic notions were often ruinous.

It’s a big book, and Weir packs a lot in: there are the many marriages — with a focus on steadfast Katherine of Aragon and capricious Anne Boleyn, religious controversy, warmongering, power plays and politics, alongside vivid descriptions of sumptuous clothing, feasts and houses.

But Weir isn’t much given to original speculation about Harry’s motivations, so his story, although well told, feels very familiar.

THE GHOST THEATRE by Mat Osman

(Bloomsbury £16.99, 320pp) THIS darkly magical novel is the second from Osman, rock band Suede’s bassist.

It’s a novel of glitter and grim, which charges into a reimagined Elizabethan London in the company of Shay, a messenger and falconer who can read the future in the patterns of flocks of birds, and mercurial Nonesuch, a guttersnipe star of a children’s theatre troupe — where the abused actors are teenagers and younger.

Tired of playing monarchs and mythological figures, Nonesuch and Shay (who embark on a bitter-sweet romance) team up with their friends to stage immersive, charged performances which will tell the stories of ordinary people; performances that foment rebellion in the hearts of the audience and especially the downtrodden apprentice, with dramatic consequences for all concerned.

THE PAPER MAN by Billy O’Callaghan (Cape £18.99, 288pp)

JACK SHINE is sorting through his dead mother Rebekah’s belongings when he uncovers a cache of letters and newspaper clippings celebrating legendary Austrian footballer

Matthias Sindelar, the titular Paper Man. Rebekah had come alone to Ireland when war broke out, but she died tragically young, keeping the secret of Jack’s father’s identity close to heart.

As the moving story unspools, O’Callaghan proves himself the most engaging of storytellers, as capable of capturing the emotional breathlessness of falling in love, the dynamism of Sindelar on the pitch and the slow drip of terror as the rumours of the Nazis become reality — sundering a relationship and separating lovers.