Customer Reviews

The Autobiography of the Queen

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Understandably, HM Queen Elizabeth II decides that she's had enough of her duties, her children and her husband, and takes off for warmer climes and the temptation of anonymity. The initial vignettes in which she attempts to navigate the check-in desk at Gatwick and Upper Class seating on Virgin are hilarious, but the author doesn't build on this theme all that well.

Unfortunately, the Queen starts to seem pathetically inept at even the most mundane tasks (I'm sure she'd know how to lock a door, or open one, for that matter), and in this there is a loss of credibility to the story. I can fully believe her not ever having packed her own clothing, but I am fairly certain that even the Queen has operated a door at some point in her life.

All in all, I enjoyed Autobiography of a Queen, but felt that there could have been more to it, and was disappointed by the lack of fulfillment of the promise made in its starting pages.

This is a quick, amusing read that's just the thing to read in between heavier works. The Queen decides that she's had enough of being on duty for her entire lifetime and is equally sick of the scandals and ructions caused by her own troublesome children and cranky husband, so flies first class to one of the Virgin Islands where she's made a down payment on a soon to be built villa. Calling herself Mrs.Gloria Smith, she has no luggage with her as her luggage has always previously been transported to wherever she goes and she somehow assumes that things will just keep happening as before. Playing the role of an ordinary person, she is amazed at the lack of courtesy from people who should know better and the effort required by ordinary mortals, just to live from day to day. She somehow manages to serenely sail through a few days, relying on the kindness of strangers to make things happen. It's a strangely moving little book and I'm not sure that HM would perceive herself as quite as inept and other worldly as Mrs.Gloria Smith.