The Uncommon Reader A Novella

The Queen's corgis wander into a mobile library parked near Buckingham Palace, and she feels obliged to borrow a book. It is a small act of politeness, and it starts a habit she cannot drop.

She begins to read widely and with growing appetite, taking in J. R. Ackerley, Jean Genet and Ivy Compton-Burnett as well as the classics. Norman, a young man from the royal kitchens, helps feed her new obsession. As the books pile up, she starts to question the prescribed order of things and loses patience with the routines that fill a monarch's days.

The palace staff are alarmed by her passion at first. Before long its effects spread beyond the palace walls and reach the country at large, with surprising results.

This is a short comic novella with a dry, mischievous tone and sharply observed detail. It treats reading as a quietly subversive force, and it keeps a light touch from the first page, so it suits an afternoon's sitting.