I have read all of Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole books and her Enteraining Coventry book and enjoyed them all. I thought the idea for this book, how the Queen and the rest of the Royal family would cope post an anti Royal Revloution, was a good one.

I have to say that I am disappointed by what I read. Nevertheless, Townsend has put across some marvellous caricatures:

the Queen is a gem: she mucks in and gets on with life
Philip becomes a waster who feels desperately sorry for himself
the Queen Mother makes a friend and carries on but dies
Charles ends up in jail sporting apony tail and then there's a twist
Diana falls for a rich young chap with a sporty car
William and Harry become part of the pack: look out for theiur letters to daddy
Margaret lived as she always did
Anne teams up with a shorthouse
Edward and Andrew disappear and only one of them resurfaces ... in a shocking denouement!

The People's Republican Party is the bete noir of the Queen's life.

The Queen's neighbours are a variable lot, all solid, down to earth working class types of course. You can imagine the kinds of things they get up to: some of them are funny, some are sad and some are just the way life is!

Townsend has a go a several of our glorious institutions: the Police, the DSS, the Council and our fair society in general; and if we read between the lines of her meanderings then they are fair pause for thought!

There is a not such a well hidden twist to the entire story that you might miss if you're speed reading this book!

I bought this book in the British Heart Foundation shop in Abingdon for £1 and will return it to a charity shop so that it can be sold on again. True fans of Townsend's work will read and love it but it's not as wicked as Adrian Mole I'm afraid.

 

Duncan Williamson
23 January 2004