Mrs Queen Takes the Train, William Kuhn

Mrs Queen Takes the Train
William Kuhn
British/Scottish Monarch Fantasy
ISBN: 978-0062208286

If you totally disregard actual real life and the staggeringly minute possibility that anything like this could ever actually happen, this is a fun little romp through the purported mind of the aging figurehead.

The Queen has been feeling a bit down lately.  Her yoga hasn't been helping, neither has her horse Elizabeth (born on Her birthday natch) or her doggies.

So one rainy sleety night, she pops off to the stables and ends up headed off to Scotland to visit the old family yacht, now pulling tourist-attraction duty. 

The narrative splits niftily between The Queen and the people around her - butler par excellence William, novice equerry Luke, the queen's personal dresser Shirley, her somewhat titled (but broke) lady in waiting Anne, the horse-keeper Rebecca (perhaps an Aspie?) and English-Indian Rajiv.  All of them have their own lives, their own goals, and their own problems, and in perfect little cozy fashion, all of their needs are met quite nicely by their coming together during this interesting event.

The sections are labeled by yoga poses, and The Queen references her yoga practice often in her efforts to remain calm and stable, which I thought cute, but maybe a bit twee.  What was most certainly twee was the inclusion of photographs of various subjects based on what was being talked about - a badger, for instance, or various photos of The Queen in the past.  That was actually offputting, to be quite honest.

Again, the premise is laughable, but while you're reading it, you don't want to laugh - you want to pat The Queen on the hand and tell her everything will be all right (wouldn't that cause fits if it were done?). 

The inevitable coupling off was a bit heavy-handed, if sweet, and I especially side-eyed the equerry's very quick decision. 

It would be interesting to have this as the read for a grandmother-mother-granddaughter book-club, to see if the impressions of the story and the characters changes with the stage of life you're in.