Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #146101 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

Funny but childish
This book had many funny moments and I found myself laughing out loud at the dry, British humour. However, it was also very childish with a below average style of writing, better suited to a younger generation.

All-in-all its an easy, unchallenging read, perfect for pre bed-time.

Hilarious Riff on the Royals - and Their Subjects
This quirky, biting satire begins with the Royal Family having been exiled to council housing in what is called an Exclusion Zone - a place where the slappers, the morbidly obese, the criminal and other undesirables are sent. The Queen cares for her ailing husband and despairs of her dysfunctional brood. The caricatures are vividly drawn here, and only Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles' long-suffering wife, Camilla, come off very well.

I found something hilarious on almost every page - Sue Townsend has a wicked wit and, though I am a recent transplant to these shores and thus have probably missed some cultural references, I was nonetheless entranced by the storyline, and the foibles Miss Townsend gave her characters. Charles dithers, Camilla consoles, Anne swears a lot, Andrew's gotten chubby and chases girls with wild abandon, William is earnest and Harry's a thug. Throw some unexpected characters into the mix (along with some great cameos from the likes of Stephen Fry and Jeremy Paxman) and you've got a page-turner. Not "great literature," but I couldn't care less - life is too short to read books that enrich without entertaining. There were some scenes that were movingly written, and one that had me crying uncontrollably - that Townsend can inspire such a range of emotion is very telling and a compliment to her literary skills.

Another, interesting, surprising aspect was the integral participation of the community's pet dogs, and the stunning plot twist that they pull off - dumb animals, indeed!

I only gave the book four stars instead of five because of some rather glaring editorial errors that leapt off the page at me and took me out of the story. A good proofreader/editor would have solved that problem and made this a five-star novel.

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.