If the dogs had not barked like mad at an unfamiliar van at the door of the palace kitchen, the Queen would never have known about the weekly visits of the Westminster Mobile Library. But after walking up the steps of the caravan to apologize for the noise the dogs had made, she eventually chose a novel by the half-forgotten writer Ivy Compton-Burnett. The queen was not interested in reading, but her upbringing did not allow her to leave the book unread, and then, so as not to seem impolite, she took another one. The second, more successfully chosen, awakened in Her Majesty a passion for reading, which over time became so strong that because of it the Queen began to neglect her duties. And while the queen read everything from Thomas Hardy to Anita Bruckner, from Proust to Beckett, her courtiers conspired to stop her literary odyssey. Unpretentious and wonderfully funny, The Difficult Reader makes a wonderful case for reading from one of its greatest champions, Alan Bennett.