The Beheading Game
On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn’s head is struck from her body by a professional swordsman. Then she wakes in the Tower, escapes carrying her head, steals a sewing box, stitches her head back on, rids herself of the blood-soaked overdress, and sets off to seek retribution. Henry has robbed her of so much! Her reputation, her freedom, her life.
In this new world, Anne must plan cautiously. Alice, a shrewd street woman, shelters and guides her first foray into a world as duplicitous as court circles. Anne steals money, triggering rumours of a dead queen walking and is chased by Tower guards. Alice aids her escape to the Fenlands. They become close, but Anne must return to London to protect her daughter.
This is a highly inventive way to learn about the Anne beneath the bravado, her love for Henry, her fixation on securing Elizabeth’s future. Brave yet insecure, haunted yet resolute, she wanders the countryside protected by a white bull, the Boleyn mascot. She follows the directions given her when leaving the Fenlands, yet sometimes traverses the same ground more than once before finally seeing the distant lights of London.
This is such a good story, bending a traditional narrative and weaving the threads towards a fine conclusion. Of the five tarred heads Anne sees, she cannot distinguish her brother, George, from the others. We feel her grief as painful memories of George play into happy reminiscences of childhood and Anne’s deep love for him. These memories tenderly offset the appalling charges leveled against her. Unlike many fantasies, this has more than its fair share of reality, and we picture a more corporeal Anne outside the rigid court rules, the political game playing, the duplicity, the grasping and grifting, the danger. Is Anne finally ready to face death? Find out in Lehmann’s historical debut.
