Just finished Alan Bennett's excellent novella 'The Uncommon Reader' - a (presumably!) fictional account of what follows when the Queen develops an all-consuming passion for reading, books and authors. Funny, a little subversive and well worth a read, particularly for the wonderful slights Bennett puts in the Queen's mouth for politicians of all stripes. Highly recommended.A small example. The learning and intellect of our senior politicians if often compared to unfavourably to that of their early or mid-twentieth century predecessors - the usual implication being that with one of two exceptions, Parliament is stuffed with uneducated careerists with next to no knowledge of history and how it impacts on their brief. Their knowledge is limited to what they've been briefed on rather than a store of learning borne of personal reading or education. There's an episode in the book when the Queen mentions to an aide her regret at having met so many authors in the past when she knew very little about their work:
'But ma'am must have been briefed surely?' the aide replies.
'Of course,' said the Queen, 'but briefing is not reading. In fact it is the antithesis of reading. Briefing is terse, factual and to the point. Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting. Briefing closes down a subject, reading opens it up'
In other words - briefing makes few, if any, intellectual demands on the recipient. Perhaps that's why Ministers like it so.
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