If you are an anglophile at heart – enjoy British humor, read more Reginald Hill than James Patterson, knew who Ian McEwan was before Keira Knightley agreed to star in Atonement – then you will find Alan Bennett’s The Uncommon Reader a fun read.

Already known on this side of the pond for The History Boys, Bennett focuses this humorous novella on the queen, and in doing so joins a new trend in the way the British see HRH Elizabeth II. According to the premise, Queen Elizabeth is not a reader, not until her corgi dogs attack a bookmobile parked on the servant’s side of Buckingham Palace and she ventures in to be polite. Consideration leads to borrowing a book, and desire to shirk duties opens it. The result in an interest so refreshing that the queen neglects her role in favor of reading. This plot affords Alan Bennett the opportunity to skewer many of Britain’s famous literati—jibes at modern writers become loving critiques of classic authors as Elizabeth’s reading palate develops.

The corgis are not amused by her new interest, neither is her staff. Through them, we glean a new perspective on the queen, one ironically begun by the life and death of her polar opposite: Princess Diana. Alan Bennett feels sorry for Elizabeth. His novella, like The Queen (for which Helen Mirren won an Oscar), presents her majesty as one of us—an average person trapped by extraordinary circumstances. He gives us laughter with a certain amount of pity. There is a graphic reference or two; however, the bigger shock may be that as you read the novel you will want to adopt the queen, saving her from the silly formality of what Bennett considers her empty life.