The Queen and I

The Queen and I Sue Townsend (Soho Press, $22) Literature swarms with displaced monarchs. Fairy-tale princesses scrub floors and King Lear is turned out to howl in a storm. In Sue Townsend's vengeful little British best-seller, the royal family has been abolished by popular vote and must move into squalid public housing. Prince Philip crumbles. Diana, depressingly, still shops, though in thrift stores. But Queen Elizabeth copes. Her faultless grammar- mocked by drunks-proves useful for bullying welfare workers. She assists at a home birth and, after refusing to let the child emerge onto a filthy sofa, donates Queen Victoria's baby clothes. Readers will find themselves wobbling companionably with the Windsors on the knife blade between laughter and desolation. A -Kate Wilson