Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived, we all know the famous rhyme of King Henry VIII’s reign turbulent reign…but what about the lesser known monarchs throughout history? 
 
UEA graduate Charlie Higson recently visited UEA as part of Norwich History Festival to discuss his book Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee: An Epically Short History of our Kings and Queens. It was a Waterstones Best History Book 2025 and Bob Mortimer hailed it as ‘learned, entertaining and highly approachable’, whilst Al Murray simply said: ‘five stars from me’.  
 
I caught up with Charlie before the event to discuss the process of writing the book and how comedy and the monarchs, despite being an unlikely match, complement one another: 
 
Responses have been edited and paraphrased. 

What was it like transitioning from having a podcast about monarchs to making that into a book? 
 
Bob Mortimer originally suggested to do a comedy podcast, blending comedy and history. Charlie didn’t really approach the podcast with the intention of being humorous, he simply wanted to tell the stories in as most an entertaining way as possible, alongside being informative through having proper historians. The tone of voice had to be established more quickly in the book, because you have more space when doing a podcast series of many episodes. It was a balance between being informative, whilst not having too many facts. 
 
Some people find the monarchy inaccessible. Do you think the comedic tone of your book helps with engaging casual readers? 
 
Comedy helps more general readers engage with the subject and makes it less daunting. Comedy can lead to reliability, through such flaws or humorous moments of monarchs being apparent in the present day. This made the text more personal, making these historical figures feel less distant and more relevant.  
 
What was the collaboration with the illustrator Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves) like? 
 
Charlie said from the start he wanted the text to have a strong visual identity.  Jim and Charlie had collaborated in the 90s so he knew Jim would be perfect if he wanted to. Originally Jim went for historical accuracy, whilst Charlie wanted humour. Charlie encouraged Jim to do it his way, leading to the final drawings in the book. 
 
Was there a monarch or historical story which particularly interested you from the book? 
 
Everyone can picture more common monarchs like Queen Victoria and Henry VIII. Henry III was interesting because he was a slightly poor sequel to King John. It was also about trying to find the essence of more obscure monarchs, which is why it was interesting to talk to historians. Although, we don’t always know what happened as historical records are always influenced by interpersonal relationships during that time. 
 
What advice would you give to current UEA students who want to pursue careers in writing or history? 
 
Become comfortable with the process of writing through putting thoughts into words. Some days you don’t know what to write but hitting on right word or image can make your idea become clear. 
 
Following the interview, Charlie joined Professor Claire Jowitt for a discussion about the book at the event.
 
He shared engaging anecdotes such as how the book originally started as a Covid-19 lockdown project to ‘keep himself sane’, as well as how he and Jim Moir meeting at UEA in the 80s allowed them to collaborate. He also mentioned how the book was originally intended to be shorter, similarly to The Shortest History of England by James Hawes. Although Charlie jokingly stated: ‘the foolish thing to do was to try and get on top of 1000 years of history!’.  
 
Alongside this was engaging discussions about the future of the monarchy with Charlie admitting he’s swung both ways of for and against the monarchy; whilst mentioning people are still obsessed with the monarchy regardless of their opinion.

Discussing his own history with Norwich at UEA studying English, American History and Film Studies; Charlie was asked whether he was a diligent student, to which he confessed he and his friends used lecture theatres for their overnight horror film club! Anyway, all’s well that ends well as Charlie was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by UEA in 2014 for his distinguished career in writing and television.

Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee by Charlie Higson is available to buy from HarperCollins

Header image credit: Samuel Haines