Skip to main content

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett


I’ll start by saying unequivocally that The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett is a total joy to read from start to finish. There, that’s my review…
Okay, let’s rewind and dismantle that statement a bit, as I should probably say why I feel like that.

The Uncommon Reader of the title is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and in this small, but beautifully formed novella (only 120 pages) Alan Bennett imagines that the Queen comes across a small mobile library on the grounds of Buckingham Palace one day while she’s out with her corgis. Always a stickler for etiquette, she borrows a book to be polite, and makes the acquaintance of a pretty unprepossessing kitchen boy called Norman. From such small beginnings, great national events are built.

After a hesitant start the Queen begins to relish her forays into literature, aided and abetted by the redoutable Norman who is elevated to a position as a page, much to the chagrin of her private secretary Sir Kevin, a New Zealander of whom great things are expected (including by himself). As the Queen becomes more and more absorbed by the myriad worlds and different points of view that books can offer, her household become increasingly alarmed that she’s letting things slide, letting the side down, and that god forbid, reading for pleasure is somehow a selfish pursuit not appropriate for a sovereign whose life has been and should be devoted to duty.

As I say, this is a delightful read. Alan Bennett exercises a light, witty and ultimately biting touch to make the narrative and especially the dialogue sing. But for all its lightness of touch, The Uncommon Reader has a lot to say about duty, the tyranny of social and political expectation, the excitement that new knowledge can engender and the fear that it can engender in others. It’s a sly and witty commentary on just who is charge of whom in royal circles – the Queen acknowledges that on a royal tour she is a package to be delivered form A to B – an important package obviously, but a package nonetheless. And more than anything it’s a lovely hymn to new worlds and possibilities unfolding through books to which her Majesty is a beguiling guide.

Oh and the ending is a killer, I’m just saying.

As I say, it’s only 120 pages, and everyone of them is a gem.

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett was originally published in 2007 and my copy was published by Picador.

Labels:

Comments

  1. Melinda4 April 2020 at 15:09

    You make me wonder whether I've still got my copy. I do remember enjoying it, and it might just break through my non-reading at present.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SharonP4 April 2020 at 15:31

      Go look for your copy. It might be just the tonic that you need!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

It’s been about 10 days since I finished History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund and I’ve had to let it sit in my brain and fester a bit before I felt I had my thoughts in order. First up, a bit about the book. It’s a first novel and tells the story of Linda, a teenage girl growing up in very rural Minnesota who befriends a young mother and her four year old son who have moved in to a summer cabin on the other side of the lake while they wait for the arrival of the absent academic husband/father. The relationship between Linda, the mother and son is at the heart of the story. Additionally, we have a picture of rural and small-town Minnesota – a teacher who may or may not be guilty of child pornography. A fellow pupil who may or may not have had a relationship with the teacher. On top of that we have a time shift with adult Linda looking back at the events of her teenage years and we see how they affected her initial and continuing maturation into adulthood. That’s a lot of stuff ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

I really wanted to like The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce. Last year I read her The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and it became one of my favourite books for the year. So I was primed to love this book too. But I didn’t… It’s not a bad book, and I’m sure lots of people loved it. It certainly got lots of good reviews if the back cover blurb is to believed. But I was just kind of disappointed. The basic story is of Frank who is a vinyl record aficionado, owns a record store in a rundown part of town and is one of the last holdouts in the face of the encroaching age of CD’s. The street is occupied by a variety of quirky businesses and their owners who are hanging on by their toenails in the face of urban development and vandalism.   Into Frank’s world walks a mysterious woman who captures everyone’s attention and eventually asks Frank to teach her about music. And so a tentative relationship dance begins. This is all very promising, and I have to say that the author ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell

To me, Bernard Cornwell is best known for writing the Sharpe novels and The Last Kingdom novels, with both sagas being made into successful TV series over the years.  So I was curious when I came across a stand-alone Bernard Cornwell on the Bargain Book Table last year, especially one with the intriguing premise that Fools and Mortals promised on the back cover. Fools and Mortals is lifted from a line in A Midsummer Night’s Dream when Puck says “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”  It’s a nice choice of title because one of the main plot lines of the book is William Shakespeare and his company planning and rehearsing the inaugural performance of the play to celebrate the wedding of the Lord Chamberlain’s granddaughter. Having said that, one of the great conceits of the book is the story isn’t really about William Shakespeare at all, even though he’s one of the chief protagonists. It’s about Richard Shakespeare, one of his brothers. Cornwell has taken the fact that Richard ac...
2 comments
Read more