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This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2016

Copyright © Richard III 2016

Richard III asserts the moral right to

be identified as the authors of this work

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

‘Richard’ by Carol Ann Duffy commissioned by Leicester Cathedral to be read at the service for the reburial of Richard III in March 2015. Copyright © Carol Ann Duffy, 2015. Reproduced by permission of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd, 20 Powis Mews, London W11 1JN

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Source ISBN: 9780008203504

Ebook Edition © May 2016 ISBN: 9780008203511

Version: 2016-05-04

I always had a hunch …

CONTENTS

I

I, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, Lord Protector, loyal brother (ahem) to one king, loving uncle to another mysteriously vanish’d (though I never knew a thing of that, not a dickie bird), called Dickon by some, Crookback by more, King Richard of England for too short time, later of the City Council Car Park, New Street, Leicester LE1 5PS (special rates weekends and bank holidays), latterly reinterred in seemly place … I, Richard III, am now about to write the curious story of my afterlife.

Yet that misleads where no deception’s meant. ’Tis not merely, nor even mostly, of my own afterlife I shall write. For that may all too swiftly be thus condensed:

Afterlife of Richard III

Died 22 August 1485

Laid to rest in a car park

Remains discovered September 2012

Exhumed

DNA tested (an acid, so I’m told, that weaves and meanders through the blood, and is the very building block of life)

Confirmed as Richard Plantagenet

Reburied Leicester Cathedral, March 2015