We Were... Somewhat Amused. (The Queen and I - Sue Townsend)

Member Name: TheChocolateLady

Product:	The Queen and I - Sue Townsend
Date:	05/07/07 (212 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast, easy read, funny in spots, interesting and unique concept

Disadvantages: The parts about Harris, a bit unfocused, predictable ending

In a fictional 1992, the Republican Party sweeps the general election and their first act of power is to dismantle the monarchy and put the whole royal family into Midlands' welfare housing in a place known to the locals as "Hell Close". How the Winsor/Mountbatten/Teck families adjust to this new, impoverished lifestyle is the basis of Sue Townsend's novel "The Queen & I".

Sue Townsend is best known for her Adrian Mole books, which are aimed – from what I understand – to the youth market. This novel, while not one that younger readers couldn't enjoy, seems to be aimed more at adults. As you can imagine, this is hardly a serious piece of dramatic literature so both young and old may enjoy it, especially since this is written in very easy language for a particularly fast read. Personally, however, I found this book slightly lacking, but not totally so.

On the positive side, the basis of the story is very unique and interesting. Putting not just the queen, but the whole royal family "out of business", so to speak, makes possibilities of humourous situations almost endless. Townsend uses several varying situations in this book, and seems to have the picked ones that would cause the most trouble for the group immediately upon being deposed. For instance, fitting their large and precious carpets into the tiny flats they've been given, or suddenly having to do the simplest of things like taking public transport, making tea or going shopping for the first time. Of course, how each of the royals cope with their lower-class, cramped, physical surroundings, seems to bring about the more amusing personality comparisons and circumstances. And the colourful people that get these unexpected new neighbours are pretty funny, and mostly endearing.

That the main 'characters' are actually real people always makes writing fiction about them difficult, and when they are as well known as the House of Windsor, this is even more difficult. Still, Townsend seems to have succeeded in creating a fairly believable newly-impoverished Elizabeth. Ann and Margaret also act pretty much true to form. Even the Queen Mother is mostly realistic, and while I have my doubts about how she portrayed Diana, Phillip and Charles, I found them just slightly off kilter but not totally unbelievable. Unfortunately, reading this in 2007, and not in 1992 does make many of the other family members' actions a bit on the inaccurate side. Hindsight, of course, is part of the problem here, and certainly if this had been written more recently, Townsend would have needed to change some of her characterizations, and several of the situations.

The question is just how much of a leap of faith do we really need to take with this book? Suspending disbelief to accept that Diana would get involved in DIY redecoration or that Charles' horticultural abilities would blossom in this shadowy environment is basically allowable. The biggest problem I found was Townsend's getting into the head of Elizabeth's pet corgi, Harris. I'm sorry, but I really don't think that this story benefited from this sub-plot of a pampered dog turning into a street mongrel, and I certainly don't want to read what he is thinking about as he has his experiences! I mean, even in fiction we need to be just a bit realistic, don't we? Don't get me wrong, I have been known to enjoy books like "Watership Down" where all the characters are animals whose thoughts we were party to, but it was an animal world, not a human one. Mixing the two worlds together just got on my nerves.

I also felt that Townsend took on a bit too much here, for the length of the work she produced. Because we're talking about such a large group of people, some of the royal family got only cursory attention, while others were barely footnotes. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but her concentration on Elizabeth was distracted firstly by the damned dog's story, and secondly by trying to at least mention as many of people as possible. I really think this would have been a far more solid book if we had seen it all through Elizabeth's perspective, instead of changing focus all the time. In order to properly give attention to all those different points of view, it probably needed an additional 150-200 pages, which would have made the book too long for the "light reading" genre market.

Still, one shouldn't take a book like this too seriously. It is a comedy with a unique and interesting, if badly dated, concept that will make you giggle if not guffaw at times. Despite some iffy characterizations, loss of focus and a terribly predictable ending that borders on the cliché, the writing style is easy and quick to read, and suitable for younger audiences as well as adults. I can't give it more than three stars but if you're looking for a fun, fast read, I can recommend you give this a try.

Thanks for reading!

Davida Chazan © July 2007

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Technical Stuff:

This book is available via Amazon new for £5.99 or through the marketplace from £2.50. There is a sequel to this book called "Queen Camilla" but I don't think I'll be reading it.

Details on Amazon have the paperback version I read as follows: 288 pages, Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (28 Nov 2002), Language English, ISBN-10: 0141010878, ISBN-13: 978-0141010878

I also found the following sites (among many) about Sue Townsend:

The Penguin Authors page is at http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1 000049987,00.html
Fantastic Fiction site
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/t/sue-townsend/
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Summary: Sue Townsend's comic novel about what if they dethroned the Royal Family!