Harper-Thames reviews a comedy novel from her usual Shoreditch beat
I cover this neighbourhood for a living, so I read Henry Is Back half expecting it to feel like an outsider’s idea of what East London comedy clubs are like. Instead it felt uncannily accurate, which is either a very good sign for the book or a slightly worrying sign about how predictable we all are round here.
Henry VIII reincarnated as a stand-up comedian working small local rooms before anything bigger gives the novel a strong, grounded comic engine. He’s arrogant, out of his depth, and completely unwilling to admit either, and watching the neighbourhood’s usual chaos gently dismantle his certainty chapter by chapter is genuinely well done.
The chapter set at a badly attended Tuesday night open mic is close enough to reality that I actually laughed out loud recognising bits of it.
It’s sharp, well paced, and never overstays a joke, which is more than I can say for some actual local open mics.
The ongoing material this grew from continues at Henry VIII’s stand-up diary, and the novel is a genuinely strong, funny read.
