This was a book club selection, so I had no choice but to read it. What a surprise! I expected it to be rather trite, but found it instead to be quite touching.

The Queen, feeling melancholy, essentially wanders off on her own to make her way to Scotland to visit the decommissioned Royal Yacht Britannia in the hopes of rekindling some pleasant memories. Six people, all but one connected with the royal household, pair off in pursuit to retrieve her and ensure her safety. This isn’t merely about the Queen “going walkabout”, however. We get insight into the lives of each of these people.

Rajiv, a young man of Indian descent, still treated by many as a foreigner despite both he and his parents having been born in Britain, is smitten with Rebecca, who is employed at the royal stables, or Mews, and is far more comfortable in the company of horses than of people.

Luke is a young military officer, assigned to the household as an Equerry, had served in Iraq, is likely suffering from PTSD, and is filled with loneliness, grief, and guilt over the loss of a very close friend. He is thrown together with William, who has made the royal household his career, and finds himself strongly attracted to Luke as he shepherds him through the crisis of the Queen’s disappearance.

Anne, only 10 years younger than the Queen and an outcast from a noble family, is a Lady in Waiting. She is a widow and is estranged from her son, and dreads the prospect of her approaching retirement. In the pursuit she is paired off with Shirley, the Queen’s dresser, who for historic family reasons is openly hostile to Ladies in Waiting. For her part, Anne resents the intimacy of the relationship between Shirley and the Queen. The crisis reveals common experiences, and engenders mutual respect.

I find it odd that some people have complained about the details of all these characters as being a distraction from what they think is the point of the story: namely the Queen’s unplanned excursion. They seemed to have a preconceived notion of how the story should go, rather than just letting the story take them where it wants to go.

I enjoyed this story because it touches so sensitively and so well on so many parts of the human condition: aging, sadness, finding purpose, grief, loss, prejudice, and most importantly, love. It also gave me a new appreciation for Shakespeare’s Henry V.

Mount Pleasant by Don Gillmor

Meet Harry Salter who hires an accountant to investigate his deceased father’s lost assets, while he is surviving his own midlife crisis of ballooning debt and his crumbling marriage.

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window & Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Join Allen Karlsson on a hilarious adventure the day he turns 100 years old, to discover his larger-than-life backstory.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Follow Harold Fry on his journey between the present and the regrets of the past to deliver a letter by hand to his old friend, Queenie Hennessey, thinking she will live as long as he walks.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Meet another hilarious character, Don Tillman, an oddly charming and socially challenged genetics professor who’s on an unusual quest of finding out if he is capable of true love.

My Mother’s Daughter: A Memoir by Rona Maynard

Join Rona Maynard, Editor-in-Chief of Chatelaine, and discover her remarkable life story seen through the window of her relationship with her mother.

Bridegroom tells the emotional journey of Shane and Tom, two young men who grew up in small towns in Montana and Indiana respectively, each having struggled with the fact that they are gay.  Both move to Los Angeles where they meet and fall in love and have a six-year committed relationship.  They move in together, take out a mortgage, adopt a dog, start a business and travel the world together.  Their union was tragically cut short by Tom’s death from an accidental fall off a roof during a photo shoot.

The events that followed only compounded the tragedy.  Shane was cut off legally and emotionally by Tom’s family.  He was threatened with physical violence if he tried to attend the funeral and burial service.

This documentary is poignant and enraging and will open a window onto the issue of marriage equality like no speech or lecture ever will.  I’m tempted to reveal the origin of the title of this documentary, but I think I will let you discover it for yourself.

Here is a link to a YouTube video that is the seed of the full documentary.  It was posted by Shane on the one-year anniversary of Tom’s death.