The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

Walking her corgis one night the Queen stumbles upon a City of Westminster mobile library. Not wanting to seem rude, she borrows a book, and then another. Soon she has been bitten by the bug and finds herself reading whenever she gets a moment. She becomes adroit at reading in the car while waving with her free hand and seems to be neglecting her once impeccably performed duties. She reads capriciously and diversely, everything from Proust to Vikram Seth and soon the seditious world of literature has her questioning her life and the political world around her. This is an absolute joy for any lover of reading who wonders what the world would be like if more people in power read for themselves. In his portrayal of the Queen, Alan Bennett has created a character who is both eminently believable and endearingly lovable.

Robert McCrum, Observer  `...a masterpiece of comic brevity.'

Jane Shilling, Times `An exquisitely produced jewel of a book...[but] beneath the tasteful cover seethes a savagely Swiftian indignation against stupidity, Philistinism and arrogance in public places, and a passionate argument for the civilising power of art.'

124 pages