The Uncommon Reader

Review For all its hilarity The Uncommon Reader has a heartfelt tone. It offers a lament on old age, some thoughts on reticence and a backward glance at a life wasted. ― Sunday TimesAn exquisitely produced jewel of a book. ― The TimesPure gold ... you would be hard put to find a defter satire on British philistinism ... the dialogue is priceless. ― Mail on SundayLight, fresh, witty and warm. ― Daily TelegraphAlan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader would make a perfect stocking filler for just about anyone. -- Monica Ali ― The Guardian Published On: 2008-11-29 Product Description 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. Book Description What would happen if the Queen became a reader of taste and discernment rather than of Dick Francis? From the Back Cover [insert Royal Court logo] ‘A masterpiece of comic brevity.’ Observer Led by her yapping corgis to the Westminster travelling library outside Buckingham Palace, the Queen finds herself taking out a novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett. Duff read though it proves to be, the following week she withdraws a second, more enjoyable choice of book. This awakens in Her Majesty a passion for reading so great that her public duties begin to suffer. And so, as she devours work by everyone from Hardy to Brookner to Proust to Beckett, her equerries conspire to bring the Queen's literary odyssey to a close. A gloriously entertaining comic narrative, but it is also much more: a deadly serious manifesto for the potential of reading to change lives.’ Edward Marriot, Observer ‘As good as anything he has ever done.’ David Sexton, Evening Standard ‘Turn off the phone, lock the door, and devour it.’ Country Life ‘His portrait of the Queen’s sentimental education through literature is gently subversive, wholly convincing, and very, very funny.’ London Review of Books ‘A beguiling bedtime story for grown-ups.’ Lionel Shriver, Daily Telegraph ‘There is one little gem that stands out … [it] must take pride of place for its sheer originality. It is a slender volume, but full of drama. I loved it.’ John Major, Mail on Sunday, Books of the Year About the Author Alan Bennett is one of the most celebrated writers in Britain today. His play (and film) The History Boys won seven Emmys in New York and was the most successful play in the history of the National Theatre. Untold Stories has sold over 700,000 copies in hardback and paperback. Alan Bennett was Author of the Year at the 2006 British Book Awards.