The Uncommon Reader

This novella by Alan Bennett is a pleasant little fantasy about the Queen (you know, the one in England) discovering the wonders of reading. Of course she already reads, but it's all work. One day the corgis dash off and in going after them, she comes upon a mobile library parked by the kitchen door of Buckingham Palace, making its weekly rounds. Out of politeness, she inquires and then feels she should check out a book. A kitchen boy who is checking out books on his break offers some guidance for her first selection; she slogs through Ivy Compton Burnett and then devours Nancy Mitford. After that she she becomes a regular visitor... until her Secretary arranges for the mobile library to be assigned. So she sends Norman to the town library to borrow her books.  The staff, and even the Duke, get rather annoyed that the Queen seems always to have her nose stuck in a book. She still performs all her required duties, but now feels them to be more of a burden. She learns to surreptitiously read while riding in her carriage and waving at people they pass simultaneously. And instead of asking the people she meets at these various events such innocuous questions as "How far have you traveled to come here?" she starts asking what they have read recently--which intimidates people and slows down the timetable. Norman initially gets moved from the kitchen to a position as page, stationed in the hall immediately outside the queen's chambers so that he is available for consultation at any time. That is, until the Secretary disappears him to East Anglia University. The unsuspecting Queen just starts using the libraries at her various homes, expanding her repertoire to the classics. At one point she decides she wants to meet and talk with authors, but that's a bust and she concludes that meeting authors in their books is preferable to meeting them in person. Her Secretary enlists the Queen's trusted advisors to try and dissuade her from reading. When eventually she encounters Norman again at a university event, she figures out what happened and sends her Secretary back to New Zealand. At some point, because she has always been a "do-er," she decides reading is not enough and that it's time to move on to writing. But she can't do that while she's the Queen. It's a charming little fantasy that highlights many of the benefits and pitfalls of falling in love with reading. There is a lovely and glowing review of the book by the NYTimes, with more from The Guardian, Kirkus, and The Telegraph.