Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #142953 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-26
• Binding: Hardcover
• 464 pages

Synopsis
For the past thirteen years, as England became an increasingly unhappy and fearful place, Prince Charles has been living quietly on a bleak council estate, The Flower Exclusion Zone (known locally as 'The Fez), with his wife and love of his life, Camilla. He enjoys gardening and poultry keeping while Camilla spends her days doing as little as possible, alongside their fellow ASBO-subjected neighbours. But life is about to change...Charles refuses to follow his destiny unless his wife can be Queen - and public opinion suggests the people would rather have Jordan than Camilla on the throne. But no sooner has Prince William offered himself as the next monarch, than one Graham Cracknall of Ruislip emerges - claiming to be Charles and Camilla's secret love child, and therefore the rightful heir to the crown. When the battle for the Crown begins the dogs on the Fez begin a struggle of their own - one that sweeps across the dog population of England. As Harris, the Queen's irascible corgi says, 'we've been domesticated for too long, it's time we showed our bleeding teeth.' Will sanity prevail over the right royal cock up that England has become? Or will chaos reign supreme?

"Queen Camilla" shows Sue Townsend at her very best - sharp, satirical and utterly hilarious from the first page to the last.

Customer Reviews

The smoking chicken
Continuing the story of the Royal Family exiled to a council estate in the Midlands (see The Queen and I), this is another satire on British life which is both funny and sympathetic towards its main characters. It's sharp and doesn't spare the follies and neglect perpetrated by recent governments but deals almost tenderly with those poor afflicted ex-royals.

Doesn't Quite Work
What consitutes humour is obviously down to the individual. Other reviewers have described this book as a yawn. Not funny at all, they say. However, I found it laugh out loud funny on numerous occasions throughout. Sue Townsend's sense of the ridiculous is a delight and certainly works for me.

I also find it strangely admirable and somewhat surprising that despite her lampooning of the Royals they still end up being sympathetic and strangely likeable on the whole.

But the book doesn't work as a novel somehow - more like an extended comedy sketch. It feels very loosely ploted. There is a lack of description and of narrative drive. It meanders towards a conclusion. There are loads of unresolved plotlines. More character driven than plot driven but few of the characters' dilemas are resolved by the end.

The Diary format of Adrian Mole seems to suit Sue Townsend's strengths much better than the novel format if this one is anything to go by.

An enjoyable read if you don't expect too much.

Plenty of ideas which I could almost imagine happening in the future!
The book carries on from The Queen and I and tells the next chapter of the Royal Family and their lives as ex-monarchs. England is under the rule of the Cromwell Party, and is the nanny state from hell! All 'undesirables'- teen mums, criminals, morbidly obese and the Queen and family live in an exclusion zone, complete with ankle tags and identity cards. What struck me most of all about the story was the 'accuracy'(obviously only time will tell!) of Sue Townsend's predictions which must have been based on all the clap-trap which political parties spout now, from the proposed id cards (which are used to suppress the residents throughout the book)to the not-too-far-fetched stepladder bill! The Big Brother world is very much alive and kicking, co-ordinated by a major computer system called Vulcan, which used in conjunction with the id cards and tags, can give every scrap of info about a person, from their favourite food to the names of their pets. The author consciously makes mention of George Orwell's novels, I believe to deliberately draw the feeling of wretchedness at the idea of the world becoming like this from the reader's very soul!I probably enjoyed this book more for the exploration of this hellish world, than for the story itself, which I felt took second place to the social commentary in this book. My only complaint was that Prince Phillip played no active part in the story as he is in a living-dead state in a horrible nursing home, which was a shame as I vaguely remember him being quite a good laugh in The Queen and I (but don't quote me on that!)but I loved the way the other royals were characterised, especially Princess Michael of Kent. Overall I really enjoyed the book-it's easy to read, amusing and despite the scary ideas, light-hearted.