Loosely inserted is a one-page photocopy, on which the author has noted: 'This was a piece I did for the Radio Times when my reading of The Uncommon Reader was being broadcast.  It’s also an example of my typing.'

The Queen, prompted by a chance meeting with a mobile library near Buckingham Palace, politely borrows a book, and soon discovers a voracious appetite for fiction. Enlivened by this expansive new world, she becomes critical of the unimaginative routines of Palace life, and only a few years later is to be found parachuting into the Olympic Stadium with James Bond.