The Uncommon Reader Book

It must be a funny old business being the Queen: you can't even take the corgis for a walk to the local bookshop without discovering yourself already there, albeit in fictional form. In this latest literary outing for the genre-spanning Queen Elizabeth, she discovers the joys of reading after a chance encounter with a mobile library in the grounds of Buckingham Palace and very quickly begins shirking her official duties so that she can spend quality time curled up with a good book. 'The Uncommon Reader' is a rather slight read but it is amusing and very engaging and, perhaps most importantly, is as quintessentially English as a cup of tea.

What would happen if the Queen became a reader of taste and discernment rather than of Dick Francis?The answer is a perfect story."The Uncommon Reader" is none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. She reads widely (JR Ackerley Jean Genet Ivy Compton Burnett and the classics) and intelligently. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people like the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. She comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with much that she has to do. In short her reading is subversive. The consequence is of course surprising mildly shocking and very funny.

The Uncommon Reader : Paperback : Profile Books Ltd : 9781846681332 : : 08 Sep 2008 : Features none other than HM the Queen who drifts accidentally into reading when her corgis stray into a mobile library parked at Buckingham Palace. Her reading naturally changes her world view and her relationship with people like the oleaginous prime minister and his repellent advisers. The consequence is surprising, mildly shocking and funny.