Mrs Queen Takes the Train: A Novel
<p><strong>“A witty, contemporary story of the Downton Abbey-esque tensions between servants and employers, the young and the old, and tradition and modernity.” — <em>Glamour</em></strong></p><p><strong>An absolute delight of a debut novel by William Kuhn—author of <em>Reading Jackie: Her Autobiography in Books</em>—<em>Mrs Queen Takes the Train</em> wittily imagines the kerfuffle that transpires when a bored Queen Elizabeth strolls out of the palace in search of a little fun, leaving behind a desperate team of courtiers who must find the missing Windsor before a national scandal erupts. </strong></p><p>After decades of service and years of watching her family's troubles splashed across the tabloids, Britain's Queen is beginning to feel her age. An unexpected opportunity offers her relief: an impromptu visit to a place that holds happy memories—the former royal yacht, <em>Britannia</em>, now moored near Edinburgh. Hidden beneath a skull-emblazoned hoodie, the limber Elizabeth (thank goodness for yoga) walks out of Buckingham Palace and heads for King's Cross to catch a train to Scotland. But a colorful cast of royal attendants has discovered her missing. In uneasy alliance a lady-in-waiting, a butler, an equerry, a girl from the stables, a dresser, and a clerk from the shop that supplies Her Majesty's cheese set out to bring her back before her absence becomes a national scandal.</p><p>Comic and poignant, fast-paced and clever, <em>Mrs Queen Takes the Train</em> tweaks the pomp of the monarchy, going beneath its rigid formality to reveal the human heart of the woman at its center.</p>