I found myself smiling through most of this read. The author knows how write a delightul and plausible tale about real royalty.

posted Oct 15, 2008 at 1:55PM

Delightful. Absolutely delightful.

posted Oct 22, 2008 at 11:07AM

One day at Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II finds her runaway doggies gathered around a bookmobile that has come to deliver books to the kitchen staff. The Queen reads, of course, but not actively or with any real sense of purpose—she does, after all, have Other Things To Do. But she feels obliged to make a selection from the bookmobile, and then she’s quite surprised to find that reading is enjoyable. The Queen finds herself interested, roused, even impassioned. This is a woman who does nothing by halves; with the assistance of her kitchen-boy-turned-page Norman, the Queen becomes an avid devotee of literature. And the English people find themselves with a royal bookworm on their hands. The consequences are intriguing, to say the least. Author Alan Bennett is a gifted comic writer who pokes gentle fun at the rigidly ruled world of the British monarchy and all its antiquated mannerisms. But he writes Queen Elizabeth as a compelling character—an aging woman of great social and political power who still possesses the surprising to change and the desire to improve. For all the fun The Uncommon Reader has with its royal premise, the story is less about the power of the throne than it is about the power of the written word. This is a sly little what-if tale, a fairy tale about a real person that all book lovers--royal or commoner--will relish.

posted Jul 13, 2009 at 10:47AM

Cool

posted Mar 31, 2010 at 8:20PM

This novella follows Queen Elizabeth as her Corgis wander into the mobile library and she discovers serious literature & the pleasures of obsessive reading. Delightful & eccentric.

posted Sep 20, 2011 at 1:50PM

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