The King At The Edge Of The World by Arthur Phillips

I think it is important to realize that this is a book that is wry rather than funny, and if you miss that, it might seem just a tad on the dry side, which it is not. This is a book that takes a subject over which people argue, and even kill each other, and makes it seem just a little bit absurd. Here is the setting. It is 1600 and England has enjoyed a long period of domestic respite from sectarian turmoil. Queen Elizabeth has deftly managed to keep the country Protestant and to repel the attacks of Roman Catholics. However, she is about to die, and she has no heirs, so England risks slipping back into spiritual chaos with all its attendant bloodshed. Unfortunately, to speak or even to think of the queen’s eventual death is an act of treason, which makes planning for a successor somewhat inconvenient. But her counselors have secretly identified the best candidate: the King of Scotland, Elizabeth’s cousin, James VI. The fact that James is obsessed with witches and may be sleeping with a man is troublesome, but not an absolute dealbreaker. What really worries the royal advisers in London is that James may be a covert Catholic — a tool of Rome playing the long game to wrest England back to popish abomination. I recommend this even if you are not much for historically based fiction, as it reflects on the nature of man more than a particular time period.