The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

The latest in my review of London books is The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett.  I read this the weekend of the Platinum Jubilee which seemed an appropriate time to read it.

This is a novella rather than a novel and it would be easy to gobble up these 120 pages in one sitting.

The plot is a simple one.  When herding up her unruly corgis one afternoon, The Queen comes across The City of Westminster mobile library parked in the grounds of Buckingham Palace.  She goes inside and finds Normon, a member of her kitchen staff inside.  Out of courtesy she picks up a book by Ivy Compton-Burnett, and although she does not especially enjoy it, she reads it. She goes back the following week and finds a book by Nancy Mitford which is much more to her taste.  With Normon’s helps she develops a huge passion for reading, devouring everything she can get her hands on.  Gradually as books become her consuming passion, she starts to arrive slightly late at engagements, and becomes less interested in her appearance.

The more The Queen reads, the more she begins to ask questions. Books have stirred up in her a curiosity and perspectives which begin to change her.  Her courtiers and particularly her personal secretary from New Zealand become concerned and begin to come up with ways they can stop The Queen from reading.

All bookworms will recognise something of themselves in these pages.  The Queen tucks a book into her carriage which she surreptitiously reads whilst waving to the crowds.  All avid readers know you don’t go anywhere without a book.

The Queen longs to meet the authors of her favourite novels but when she does feels rather let down.  Which reader hasn’t met an author only to discover the voice on the page doesn’t quite match the voice in real life.

There is much to smile at in this story but much to muse on too. It paints a clear picture of the gap between The Queen and us mere mortals.  It suggests that we actually want The Queen to be removed.  This is illustrated, when she starts asking people questions she is genuinely  interested in the answers to.  When she asks them ‘What are you reading? they don’t quite know what to do.

Books open up a whole new world to The Queen, and as any reader knows, once you start reading, it is hard to stop.  The frustrations felt by all readers who know there are so many books they will never have time to read is real.  As is the thrill you have as a reader when you learn an author you have just discovered and love has a whole back catalogue awaiting to be read.

“Having finished the Nancy Mitford sequel, ‘Love in a Cold Climate’, the Queen was delighted to see she had written others, and though some of them seemed to be history, she put them on her (newly started) reading list, which she kept in her desk”

This Uncommon Reader is a tongue in cheek novella which will make you chuckle with it’s insight into life behind the palace walls, and depiction of what can happen to anyone, even the Queen when reading takes hold.

‘Books did not care who was reading them … all readers were equal, herself included’.