The Queen and I

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The Queen and her brood are evicted and have to live amongst the great un-washed on a council estate in housing that falls far below par. As they come to terms with their situation, the Royals meet fantastic characters and deal with the predicament in their own ways (not necessarily how you’d first expect). With The Queen in a pensioners bungalow and the Queen Mother having ‘meals on wheels’, it’s a book that keeps you laughing, crying and reeling in despair from beginning to end. No other author could imagine this so graphically, demolish the institution so wittily and yet leave the family with its human dignity intact' The Times

It is then revealed that the whole story was a nightmare. The Queen wakes to find that the Conservatives have won the election instead, as indeed actually happened, and John Major has remained Prime Minister. Police Constable Isaiah Ludlow, the policeman who took Prince Charles, Beverley Threadgold and Violet Toby to Court. When it was originally published in 1992 I borrowed a copy from my Mother and devoured it cover to cover. I was only 10 or 11 years old at time, but having read it in subsequent years it has only gotten funnier. Sue Townsend obviously knows what an estate is like, but falls into the trap of making poor people "the salt of the earth", all ready to help the royals and each other. People are only on benefits because of the recession, and the system is against them etc. Even the deadbeats and criminals on the estate aren't really bad people, in this story.

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When a Republican party wins the General Election, their first act in power is to strip the royal family of their assets and titles and send them to live on a housing estate in the Midlands. Personally, I don't think she went far enough and perhaps if had been written even a few years later, when the wheels were falling off the Royal Family, we might have had a more daring and anarchic novel. I agree with other reviewers that the ending was a cop out but it was flagged up in the opening chapter! I don't know why so many people missed it, there really wasn't any attempt to disguise it. I will refrain from saying what it is though, just in case I get accused of revealing spoilers! Having grown up on council estates, I think that some poor people are lazy, incompetent, spiteful and unhelpful, just like better off people. That being said, poor people can be just as noble, self-sacrificing and friendly as anyone with more money. Imagine if the UK became a Republic and the Royal Family were sent to live on a housing estate and told to live like ordinary Britons. How would they cope? How would they adapt? This very scenario is explored in this rather funny little story by Sue Townsend. This was the first book that I have read by this author and it came highly recommended by a friend. On the whole I found it a really enjoyable read.

In this story, the royal family are forced to live on a council estate and of course hilarious hi-jinks then ensue. This is a zany novel that is very much British humour--it also helps to remember that it's set in 1992, so if you are younger be sure to refresh yourself a bit. The Queen is our central character and she is called the Queen all through, though her family are swiftly just Margaret, Anne, Charles etc. and Princess Diana features too. Harry and William are, like a corgi, swiftly off behaving like young hooligans with the other hooligans. Anne befriends someone who asks to keep his horse in her garden, while Charles is delighted to do some gardening. Poor Philip becomes extremely depressed and the QM drifts off to a past world of memories. Our heroine the Queen has to learn how to open cans, feed her family and fit into a tiny council house, but we see her persevere and adapt, taking in her stride the full spread of life from births to death. The novel begins in 1992, set just after the general election of the same year, where the House of Windsor has just been deprived of its royal status by the People's Republican Party, and its members made to live like normal citizens.

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Lee Christmas, one of the Christmas brother's and cellmate of Prince Charles. Brother to Craig, Wayne, Darren, Barry, Mario and Engelbert.