The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett

A beautiful book - unusual I know to describe a book in that way but Alan Bennett does write with great beauty and tremendous elegance. Most of his books are slim volumes - and this is no

exception. It tells a simple tale but oh so touchingly, with humour and with tenderness. The Queen is taking the corgies for a walk one day and discovers a mobile library in the Buckingham Palace forecourt. Not wishes to appear churlish she goes in and borrows a book and finds one of her servants who can act as her guide to this undiscovered pleasure - reading. Gradually reading becomes an obsession and has all sorts of unexpected and unlooked for consequences for both the Queen and her advisers and family. This is one of the few books that makes me laugh out loud, and although it is light in so many ways, perhaps hardly conventional literature it does have a lot of things to say about modern attitudes to books, reading and the pleasure it can bring. Rating: 8/10