The Uncommon Reader

Her majesty is a very busy woman in this day and age. And when she has brought to her attention a mobile library outside the back kitchen of her residence by her 'snobby' dogs, she thought to be polite and borrow a book. This starts a reading habit that would take her away from important public duties, make her late for appointments and annoy her husband to no end; all in the name of looking for her book to read on the way there. So, that she doesn't have to look up books herself, she hires a young man, Norman, who worked in the kitchen of Buckingham Palace who she found at the mobile library to hunt for books that would interest her.

This worked for her for a little while; however, her staff did not like the way Her Majesty was acting; and so after a disasterous afternoon with authors in the garden, her private secretary began to make things more difficult for her; and for Norman. First, he sent her luggage to a different city when she traveled abroad, then, he convinced Norman that Her Majesty wished for him to go to university. But did she? And will all be well when she returns from her business overseas?

Alan Bennett was born in Leeds and educated at Leeds Modern School, learned Russian at the Joint Services School for Linguistics during his National Service and gained a place at Cambridge University. He applied for a scholarship at Oxford University and went on to take a first-class history degree at Exeter College, Oxford, where he remained for a few years before realising he wasn't the academic type.

In 1960, he achieved instant fame by appearing in the Edinburgh Festival alongside Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968; and he had written many short stories.