Mrs Queen Takes the Train,
William Kuhn
Having so enjoyed The Uncommon Reader a few years ago, I grabbed this other
fictional book about the Queen to try. It’s 10 years since Diana’s death and
the Queen finds herself a little melancholy at times. One evening after wandering aimlessly out to
the stables to see the horses in the rain, stable hand Rebecca loans the queen
her hoodie jumper to keep her warm and dry.
Unrecognised by some workmen, they tell her to go out the other way,
which she amiably does, finding herself outside Buckingham Palace. On a whim she ends up at the shop that
supplies the cheese for Her Majesty and then embarks on a public train headed
to Leith, Scotland to see the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was the home of many
happy memories. Rebecca, accompanied by
the young salesman at the cheese shop, Rajiv, take after her and keep an eye from
a distance.
None of her train companions identify her
correctly, although some do wonder if perhaps she is Helen Mirren from The
Queen movie. At the same time, not
surprisingly, some key folk at the palace are trying to figure out where she is
without alerting MI5 to the fact that they have lost her. Anne, a lady in waiting and the Queens’ dresser
(Shirley) join forces to search; as do Luke, a new equerry and William, an older
butler.
It’s quite delightful. It does jump back and forth in time, filling
in details of the others character’s lives as well as the Queen’s history, and
sometimes takes a bit of figuring out where you are up to. You get an idea (of course fictional) of how
the Queen may view her life with its ups and downs. Some of the extra story lines include the
tension amongst various levels of palace staff with their snobbiness, intrigues
and gay romances. At no point is the
Queen ridiculed, if anything you are shown a hint of a very personal, gentle
woman underneath the public persona. It’s
a reasonably lightweight story although it does deal with some serious issues along
the way. Very enjoyable.
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