Mrs Queen Takes the Train (eBook)

Description

After decades of service and years of watching her family's troubles splashed across the tabloids, Britain's Queen is beginning to feel her age. She needs some proper cheering up. An unexpected opportunity offers her relief: an impromptu visit to a place that holds happy memories—the former royal yacht, Britannia, now moored near Edinburgh. Hidden beneath a skull-emblazoned hoodie, the limber Elizabeth (thank goodness for yoga) walks out of Buckingham Palace into the freedom of a rainy London day and heads for King's Cross to catch a train to Scotland. But a characterful cast of royal attendants has discovered her missing. In uneasy alliance a lady-in-waiting, a butler, an equerry, a girl from the stables, a dresser, and a clerk from the shop that supplies Her Majesty's cheese set out to find her and bring her back before her absence becomes a national scandal.

Mrs Queen Takes the Train is a clever novel, offering a fresh look at a woman who wonders if she, like Britannia herself, has, too, become a relic of the past. William Kuhn paints a charming yet biting portrait of British social, political, and generational rivalries—between upstairs and downstairs, the monarchy and the government, the old and the young. Comic and poignant, fast paced and clever, this delightful debut tweaks the pomp of the monarchy, going beneath its rigid formality to reveal the human heart of the woman at its center.

About the Author

William Kuhn is a biographer and historian, and the author, most recently, of Reading Jackie, a look at the personality of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis through the books she chose to edit at Viking and Doubleday. He has written three previous books: Democratic Royalism; Henry and Mary Ponsonby, a double biography of two key people at the court of Queen Victoria; and The Politics of Pleasure, a life of Britain's most royalist prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts. This is his first novel.

Praise for Mrs Queen Takes the Train…

âeoeYouâe(TM)ll come away thinking Her Majesty, at least this fictional one, charming, caring, thoughtful and brave. . . . A delightful escape. We can only hope there are more train rides in Her Majestyâe(TM)s future.âe
-USA Today

âeoe[A] charmer of a first novel. . . . This Elizabeth is delightful, slyly funny company. Youâe(TM)ll never look at the real one the same way again.âe
-People (3 ½ stars)

âeoePoignant and sweet, MRS QUEEN TAKES THE TRAIN is a comic study of the British class system, an unusual testament to the possibilities of friendship outside normal comfort zones and an affirmation of the humanity within all of us.âe
-Richmond Times-Dispatch

âeoeA delightful read, a bit of fiction (the train journey) set into nonfiction (everything else), and a sly look at how the monarchy is changing along withâe"or maybe two beats behindâe"the rest of Britain.âe
-Minneapolis Star Tribune

âeoeA witty, contemporary story of the Downton Abbey-esque tensions between servants and employers, the young and the old, and tradition and modernity.âe
-Glamour.com

âeoeThis book is the perfect cup of tea for the year of the Queenâe(TM)s Diamond Jubilee. Give it to lovers of all things British. Itâe(TM)s also a good bet for fans of Alexander McCall Smith.âe
-Booklist

âeoeKuhn explores not only the queenâe(TM)s inner life, but the Downtown Abbey style-tensions between servants and royals, the old guard and the new. . . . Royal watchers and students of class alike will enjoy this smart. . . tale.âe
-Publishers Weekly

âeoeKuhnâe(TM)s first novel ought to find an avid readership among the filmgoers who flocked to The Kingâe(TM)s Speech and The Queen. . . . An affectionate, sympathetic but also unstinting look at the woman inside the sovereign.âe
-Kirkus