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|title=The Uncommon Reader

|sort=Uncommon Reader

|date=September 2007

|isbn=978-1846680496

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One day, when the Westminster mobile library van makes its customary stop at Buckingham Palace, it is overrun by escaped corgis. Hot in pursuit, the Queen feels obliged to borrow a book to compensate for the pandemonium they cause. She chooses an Ivy Compton-Burnett and it turns out to be a rather duff read. When she returns it, she strikes up a conversation with a kitchen assistant, the carrot-topped Norman, who recommends a Nancy Mitford. It's the start of something new for the Queen, whose horizons suddenly open. Guided at first by Norman, dubbed by ERII an ''amanuensis'' and by her consort a ''ginger stick-in-waiting'', the Queen has a literary epiphany. She devours it all, from Nancy Mitford, through Thomas Hardy, Jean Genet, John Betjeman and well, just about everyone.