The Autobiography of The Queen

Book excerpt: The Queen goes AWOL. No one can find her: where is she going and why ? In Emma Tennant's hilarious 'autobiography' of Queen Elizabeth, the monarch moves to the Caribbean island of St Lucia, where, after more than half a century on the throne, she can recall the years of her reign in peace and tranquillity. But the house is no more than a hole in the ground, her servants are gone and no one knows that 'Mrs Gloria Smith' is the Queen of England. The Queen quickly realizes she has a lot to learn about living life as a commoner. The story of the sovereign's new life in St Lucia is a funny and touching account of the friendship, sometimes contentious and on occasion baffling, between Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and a young St Lucian, Austin Ford. How the Queen reacts to her new life- and how she changes as a result- make The Autobiography of the Queen a hilarious and moving tale, in which her need for her subjects is a marked as their dependence on her staying on the throne. "A quiet, quirky charm" - The Times