Book info

• Title The Uncommon Reader
• Author Alan Bennett
• Year 2007
• Genre Contemporary

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.

Thoughts

Wow, this is an incredible novella. It’s stacked with ideas, which you wouldn’t have thought possible in a short story about the Queen taking up reading as a hobby.

Love some of the concepts in here, such as the Queen treating all of her books the same as she does her subjects, with an equal attitude. Or that once the public get wind of her reading, they are suddenly presenting her with books as presents or their own works for a royal opinion.

The idea that reading can be so enriching but equally can drain you of your interest in any other activity. Particularly if you don’t have quite so many chores and things to do as the average person. Or the Queen not having the best idea about feminism or equality, because she is so far removed from all of society herself.

Great story with a conclusion that gives you a bit of faith in the future of literacy.

Rating: 5 / 5