The Spare and the Heir

A hapless tour guide; a reluctant heir; a teenage terrorist. A remake of ‘The Prisoner of Zenda’ for the modern age.

Newly independent Ruritania welcomes its first tourists. It doesn’t matter that the British tour guide knows nothing about the place - nobody does, ever since a century earlier ‘The Prisoner of Zenda’ had been criminally misindexed in book stores under fiction. It’s an exciting time to be going. There’s a new regime in power, young and idealistic, promoters of recycled fashion and universal veganism. They have booted the oligarchs out and elected an artist as president. However, there is a looming problem - ominous signs that Russia wants Ruritania back. So they come up with a plan to restore the monarchy, and the race is on to find the heir to the long-defunct throne. Encouragingly, Rose Elphberg turns out to be more than a match for Kate, Meghan et al. But shockingly, it’s discovered that she is secretly engaged to an oligarch’s coke-snorting son. They urgently need an alternate heir. Cue the tour guide, Christopher Wainwright …

For fans of Nick Spalding, Rich Amooi and Terry Pratchett.