The Uncommon Reader - However...

As much as I loved this book, there was a sad moment for me just before the end. It was just a moment. But for that moment my thoughts turned away from the delight of this tale to things more serious.

In the story the Queen has just turned 80 and is considering her mortality.

In the darkness it came to the Queen that, dead, she would exist only in the memories of people. She who had never been subject to anyone would now be on a par with everyone else. Reading would not change that...

In death, the playing field becomes level. It doesn't matter if you are the Queen or a commoner of any standing. At this point the Queen in the novel is thinking about how she will be remembered after her death. But I couldn't help thinking beyond reputation and remembrance to something much more significant - standing before God on the Day of Judgment. Death is THE equaliser. And it doesn't matter what we have read or not read, who we are (king, queen or commoner) or what we have done. We all stand before God having fallen short of His holiness. We are all equally made low. The only thing that truly matters is whether we have stood before God in repentance and confessed Jesus Christ as Lord.

Why do the nations conspire

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand

and the rulers gather together

against the LORD

and against his Anointed One.

"Let us break their chains," they say,

"and throw off their fetters."

The One enthroned in heaven laughs;

the Lord scoffs at them.

Then he rebukes them in his anger

and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,

"I have installed my King

on Zion, my holy hill."

I will proclaim the decree of the LORD:

He said to me, "You are my Son;

today I have become your Father.

Ask of me,

and I will make the nations your inheritance,

the ends of the earth your possession.

You will rule them with an iron scepter;

you will dash them to pieces like pottery."

Therefore, you kings, be wise;

be warned, you rulers of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear

and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry

and you be destroyed in your way,

for his wrath can flare up in a moment.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Psalm 2

The Uncommon Reader

One of the things I did during the holidays was read The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett.

Queen Elizabeth reads plenty - papers from Parliament, newspapers, briefing notes and the like - but never novels.  No time for such things.  But that all changes when she inadvertently stumbles upon the City of Westminster travelling library van parked outside one of the palace's kitchen doors while taking the dogs for a walk.  She pops her head in to take a look and then duty bound, feels she can't leave with out borrowing something.  She is given a novel and again feeling duty bound, reads it.  So begins her journey into reading.

She makes a slow start but soon picks up speed and it isn't long before her work begins to suffer.  While others around her manage her now less than diligent work practices, she travels through various stages in her own inner world - the delight of reading, the guilt of spending too much time reading, regret that she didn't start reading sooner, regret at being exposed to a new way of life that she can't properly access in all reality because she is the Queen, wondering if she should turn her hand to writing herself...

This is a gentle read, not unlike another favourite - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  Along the way the names of authors and novels are dropped left, right and centre as the Queen is exposed to more and more literature.  As we, the readers, remember these novels and authors, and whether or not we enjoyed them, it is as though we join in a literary conversation with the Queen as she makes her comment on each.   In this way it's very, very clever and engaging.  Best of all there is the most delicious twist at the end. 

A fun holiday read.